Odisha Adequately Equipped To Tackle Omicron Cases: Health Minister

Bhubaneswar/Jharsuguda: With Odisha recording 8 Omicron cases till Sunday, the state government said it is prepared for any emergency.

The  Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) on Sunday confirmed four more cases of Omicron, the variant of concern, after genome sequencing.

Informing about the state’s preparedness, Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das said Odisha is prepared to face the situation arising out of rising cases of Omicron variant in India.

Addressing reporters at Jharsuguda Das said, “The government machinery is all geared up and we are adequately equipped to start the vaccination drive for those in the 15 to 18 years age group from January 2022,” the Minister said.

Stating that the process for testing and taking precautions are the same. Checking and testing has been intensified at airport and all  foreign returnees have to go through testing before entring the cit, he added.

He urged people to strictly adhere to government guidelines on COVID-19 and said systems are in place to expedite vaccination.

“The government is watchful over detection of Omicron cases and samples of any COVID case with symptoms is being sent for genome sequencing, he added.

In the last 24 hours four new cases of Omicron were detected and all four are foreign returnees. While two persons had returned from Nigeria and another two were UAE returnees.

India has 473 cases of Omicron as on Sunday with fresh infections reported in MP, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. India also reported 6,987 COVID cases in last 24 hours.