Jharkhand: Covid patients with travel history to be treated at government centres

RANCHI: With more than 50 cases of the Delta Plus variant of Covid-19 being detected across 12 states in the country, the state department for health, family welfare and medical education has decided to treat all Covid-19 patients with a history of travel to these states at Covid care centres.
Talking to TOI, the officer on special duty to the state health department, Siddharth Tripathi, said: “People testing positive after travelling to any of the 12 states where Delta plus variant has been confirmed will be shifted directly to a Covid care centre for treatment. Any such patient will not be allowed home isolation and they will be under hospital care.”
As per the Union health ministry, Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases of Delta Plus variant (22) followed by Tamil Nadu (9), Madhya Pradesh (7), Kerala (3), Punjab and Gujarat (2 each), and one case each in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Karnataka.
Apart from mandatory hospital admission, the state health department has also decided to ramp up surveillance for the detection of the new variant and has directed district authorities as well as railways and airports to intensify screening and testing of passengers coming from the affected states. A meeting in this regard was conducted on Friday wherein senior officials of the health department, district administration and railway officials worked out the modalities to ramp up screening at Hatia as well as Ranchi railway stations.
Meanwhile, vigil has been increased at the Birsa Munda International airport, too, and people arriving from these 12 states have to undertake a Covid test and if they test positive they have to get shifted to a Covid-19 hospital. “We have directed all deputy commissioners and civil surgeons to consider all fresh cases as that of the Delta Plus variant,” said a senior health department official.
With the Delta Plus variant being termed as a variant of concern (VOC) by the Union health ministry, the state health department has also set a target of sending 300 samples every fortnight for genome sequencing at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) in Bhubaneswar.
“We have directed all eight sentinel sites that conduct Covid-19 tests to send 15 samples each for genome sequencing every fortnight which will be 240 samples per month. Apart from that we will also send an additional 60 randomly selected samples for genome sequencing so that if there are patients infected with the mutated virus, we can track them at the earliest. In addition to this, samples of anyone who tests positive and has a travel history from states with the Delta Plus variant will also be sent for genome sequencing within 24 hours,” Tripathi said.
On being asked when is Jharkhand going to start genome sequencing in the state as the process of sending samples to ILS is time-consuming, Tripathi said that the ICMR has approved their proposal for setting up a genome sequencing lab here and work in this regard will start soon.
Critical care expert and Rims Trauma Centre head Dr Pradip Bhattacharya said: “Early detection and isolation followed by immediate treatment is the only way for preventing the spread of the Delta Plus variant. By early detection, I mean the screening of all those who are travelling from infected areas. Apart from that, strict contact tracing must be done in each detected case as the infectiousness of this variant is very high.”