Amid Covid scare, Yogi govt in UP issues alert, steps up preparedness

Lucknow, Dec 21: In view of rising COVID-19 cases in China, Yogi Adityanath's BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has issued an alert across the state and stepped up preparedness.

"The Health and Medical Education Department should start arrangements from investigation to treatment. Vigilance should be increased at the airport. People who have returned from infection-affected countries should be tested," sources informed a news agency. The Chief Medical Officers of the state and officers of the Medical Education Department have been instructed by Deputy Chief Minister Brijesh Pathak to increase vigilance, sources added.

"He said that checking of passengers coming from infection-affected countries should be ensured. Get genome sequencing done," the sources said. This helps in the detection of new variants from the virus accurately.

"Identify passengers with other symptoms including cold and fever," sources said. Further, the government has asked the officials to collect samples of COVID suspects and conduct their searches. "During this, people who have returned from travel should be advised to stay in home isolation," the sources said.

The government is also set to prepare a list of people who returned from abroad recently. "Take a look at his health for 12 to 14 days. In case of any kind of problem, treatment should be made available to them," the sources said.

Meanwhile, three cases of highly infectious Omicron subvariant BF.7, apparently the strain driving China's current surge of Covid cases, have been detected in India so far, official sources said Wednesday.

The first case of BF.7 in India was detected in October by Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre. So far, two cases have been reported from Gujarat while one case has been reported from Odisha, they said.

In the Covid review meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya Wednesday, experts said although there is no overall increase in Covid caseload as of now, there is a need for continued surveillance to keep a track of existing and emerging variants.'

With inputs from agencies