New Delhi:
Government officials say the strain of Omicron – first detected in South Africa last week and since then in more than a dozen countries, including the UK, Germany, Italy and Hong Kong – has yet to be detected. currently in India, government officials said.
Faced with the threat posed by Omicron – a highly transmissible novel coronavirus that poses a “very high” risk globally – the government today called on states and UT to scale up Covid testing rates to early identification and management of cases.
Union Health Minister Rajesh Bhushan met with senior officials to highlight the fact that at this time, Omicron is not escaping detection from existing Covid tests, including (importantly) tests. Cheaper and faster antigen tests that experts say often give false negatives.
Countries and UTs have been asked to ensure strengthening of their health infrastructure and home isolation surveillance, as well as a focus on intensive containment, active surveillance, surveillance of hotspots and openness. wide coverage of vaccines.
Government officials say the strain of Omicron – first detected in South Africa last week and since then in more than a dozen countries, including the UK, Germany, Italy and Hong Kong – has yet to be detected. currently in India, government officials said.
Last week, Mr. Bhushan wrote to state governments and UT emphasizing the need to closely monitor international passengers and ensure prompt submission of samples for genome sequencing (for rapid identification of strains). ), as well as strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviors.
The Omicron strain – previously identified as B.1.1.529 and now designated as ‘variant of concern’ by the World Health Organization (WHO) – is thought to have 50 mutations, including more than 30. variable on the mutant protein and 10 on the receptor. binding domain.
The spike protein is the target of most current COVID-19 vaccines and is what the virus uses to unlock access to our body’s cells. Researchers are still trying to confirm whether this makes it more contagious or deadly than previous variants, and whether existing vaccines can protect against the virus strain. this or not.
The Center on Sunday issued strict guidelines for those traveling from or transiting through ‘at-risk’ countries (including those with confirmed ‘Omicron’ cases) and issued A series of guidelines for states and UTs to strengthen facility health and testing surveillance measures.
It also decided to consider the resumption of international flights.
Countries designated as ”at risk” (updated Nov. 26) include European countries, United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
With input from PTI
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