Omicron: AP Steps Up Measures to Prevent New Variant

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting at the Camp Office here on Monday on the prevailing COVID situation in wake of the new variant Omicron.

During the review meeting, the Chief Minister directed the officials to expedite the vaccination process and complete it by fixing targets. He instructed the officials to start a drive on using masks, and ensure no mass gatherings, and added to continue door-to-door fever survey and vaccination. He instructed the officials to check the facilities in the hospitals used to treat COVID patients in the past and also to ensure facilities in empaneled hospitals. He directed the officials to inspect quarantine centers, covid care centers, and covid call centers once again.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to keep a target to complete two crore doses of vaccination by end of December and said to focus on the districts where the process is slow. He suggested the officials conduct mock drills of Oxygen Generation Plants in all hospitals. He directed the officials to set up special medical teams at airports of Banglore, Chennai, and Hyderabad and screen people who are arriving to Andhra Pradesh. He said to conduct only RTPCR tests and avoid rapid tests and added to complete arrangements for the medical colleges for which tenders were finalised.

The officials informed the Chief Minister recovery rate in Andhra Pradesh is 99.20 and the positivity rate is 0.64. Daily average cases were 197 and total active cases were 2,140. They said calls to 104 numbers were reduced and preparations were made to tackle third wake. They said there are 82 hundred beds in government hospitals and added that 87.43 percent of the people completed the first dose and 62.19 percent completed two doses of vaccination and they would complete the vaccination process by January. 

They informed the Chief Minister that the new variant Omicron has been mutating and spreading fast and research is being conducted in various countries on this variant. They said 15 percent of samples are being sent to CCMB for a genomic sequence to identify this variant and added that a genome sequencing lab will be available in Vijayawada soon. They said special focus is being laid on people arriving from South Africa, Botswana, and Hongkong.

Deputy Chief Minister Alla Krishna Srinivas, Chief Secretary Dr. Sameer Sharma z Health Principal Secretary ( COVID management and Vaccination) M Ravi Chandra, Transport, Roads and Buildings Principal Secretary M T Krishna Babu, Finance Secretary Gulzar, 104 call center in-charge A Babu, Health Commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, Health Secretary G S Naveen Kumar, Arogya Shri CEO V Vinay Chand, APMSIDC VC, and MD D Muralidhar Reddy, APVVC Commissioner Dr. V Vinodh Kumar, Health director ( Drugs) Ravi Shankar, and other officials were present.