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State govt fully alert: Nitish says Bihar ready to counter Omicron
Last week, the Bihar government sent samples of travellers, who tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in the state, for genomic sequencing. It has also ramped up contact tracing.
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Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday said the state’s health authorities are taking every measure to ensure cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus do not go undetected and efforts are being made to tackle any outbreak.
Nitish Kumar also said there are no Omicron cases in the state currently and that authorities are conducting more than 5 lakh tests daily. “There is alertness in the state. We are prepared,” Kumar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“Arrangements have been made. Though there are no cases, you never know… Most numbers of per day tests are happening in the state, over 5 lakh tests being done (daily),” he further added.
Last week, the Bihar government sent samples of travellers, who tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in the state, for genomic sequencing. It has also ramped up contact tracing.
“Whenever someone from Bihar comes back from abroad, the Centre informs us and we send health officials to do their Covid test,” Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
India has so far recorded at least 170 cases of Omicron after Delhi Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra detected fresh cases of the variant on Monday. People infected with the variant have been detected in at least 12 states and Union territories in the country now - Maharashtra (54), Delhi (28), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (19), Telangana (20), Gujarat (11), Kerala (15), Uttar Pradesh (2), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1).
Health experts have warned the highly transmissible Omicron could lead to a surge of infections amid fears that the variant may evade the effects of the vaccines, prompting governments worldwide to push for a booster dose.
