The Health secretary R Rajesh Kumar has stated that currently there is not a single case of Covid-19, adding that the Health department is fully prepared to deal with any situation. After new cases of Covid-19 were reported in some parts of the country, the Uttarakhand Health department is on an alert mode. After issuing Covid guidelines, the Health secretary has started daily monitoring in the State. A meeting was held in the secretariat in view of the new variant of Covid-19 JN.1. All the district magistrates, chief medical officers and health officers virtually attended this meeting.
The Health secretary said that so far no new case of Covid-19 has been reported in the State. Along with guidelines considering the new variat, instructions have been issued to ensure proper arrangements in the hospitals. The Health department is fully prepared to deal with all types of situations, he said. Kumar also appealed to the general public to follow all Covid guidelines. Sampling is being conducted in all hospitals in the State and suspect patients are being monitored, he added.
Kumar directed the officials to ensure that RT-PCR tests are conducted to check for Covid-19. Further, genome sequencing of positive samples should also be conducted.
The officials were also directed to undertake consistent monitoring of Covid patients, conduct public awareness campaign and also ensure that there is no dearth of facilities in any health unit. He also stressed on the daily monitoring of the Covid scenario. The guidelines received from the Central government regarding the new variant JN.1 should be properly followed. Kumar further said that all the district magistrates should also focus on check the spread of misinformation regarding Covid among the public. Only the authorised information released by the Health department should be followed, he added.
Health director general Dr Vinita Shah, additional secretary Amandeep Kaur, joint director of medical education Dr Mahendra Kumar Pant and other officials were present in the meeting.