CHENNAI: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday chaired a meeting with officials from different states, including Tamil Nadu, on the emergence of Omicron, a new coronavirus variant that was first detected in South Africa.
Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, Director of Public Health Dr TS Selvavinayagam, Mission Director, National Health Mission-TN Dr Darez Ahmed, Director of Medical Education Dr R Narayana Babu, and other senior officials attended the meeting held through video conference. Speaking to reporters at Saidapet, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said the Union Health Secretary discussed the State’s preparedness in case the Omicron variant was detected. Screening of international travellers had been tightened at the airports. The State had been focusing on genomic sequencing of samples collected from eight types of clusters to immediately detect any new variant, added Subramanian.
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Public Health on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Airport Director of Chennai, Tiruchy, Coimbatore, and Madurai with the guidelines of the Union Health Ministry. The airport directors were instructed to ensure that the guidelines were strictly followed in case of international arrivals. The DPH instructed the authorities to test travellers coming from countries ‘at risk’, South Africa, China, New Zealand, Hong Kong, European countries like the United Kingdom, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Singapore, and Israel, irrespective of their vaccination status.
Since the international travellers were not allowed to leave the airport till the arrival of the RT PCR result, the officials were instructed to make arrangements for their comfortable stay. The airport directors were also requested to organise a meeting with all airport operators, airport health officers, and the local health authority (deputy director of health services) in this regard.
Vaccination campaigns on Dec 4, 5 in Pondy
Efforts are being made to intensify the vaccination programme through door-to-door checking and vaccinating. Vaccination campaigns were scheduled to take place on December 4 and 5 in each area, Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan said