Odisha govt to hold meeting on Covid today

BHUBANESWAR: Amid the threat of a renewed Covid surge, the Odisha government is planning to resume testing and whole genome sequencing of all foreign returnees from December 24.Health officials said early identification of cases and variants would help prevent further spread of the infection. There are reports of a China returnee testing positive in Gujarat and the officials do not want to take any chance as the state will be hosting the hockey World Cup next month.   

The Health and Family Welfare department has called a crucial meeting for Covid management on Friday to decide the future course of action. Senior health officials, heads of Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) and government medical colleges and testing laboratories will attend.   

The meeting will be followed by a video conference of state health officials with the Ministry of Health officials on the guidelines and protocols to be followed if any such crisis arises. Director of health services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said there will be discussions on the measures to be put in place and resumption of booster dose. “More than 50 per cent of the age-appropriate population has not yet taken the precaution dose,” he said.  

Since the BF.7 sub-variant of Omicron, believed to be driving the recent surge in China, was detected in one sample in the state three months back, Dr Mohapatra said, there is no reason to panic as it appears to be ineffective here. There is no surge in cases or further detection of the same sub-lineage in the state, he reasoned. The state reported five new cases in last 24 hours taking the active cases to 50.