Although till date there was no report of Omicron in Tripura, the state government, nonetheless, is leaving no stone unturned and taking all steps to prevent spread of the virus, said ICA minister Sushanta Chowdhury in a press conference on Friday.
Chowdhury who briefed the media about the state’s preparedness to preempt Omicron in the state following two high level meetings- one chaired by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and the other by Chief Secretary Kumar Alok-, said strict guidelines like use of sanitizer, masks and social distancing would be enforced from January 1. He also stressed on the awareness among the people about Omicron which happened to be highly infectious – though less fatal in comparison to other Covid variants.
The meetings were held after the Centre asked the states to be alert on the Omicron developments yesterday
The ICA Minister also said, Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) facility – which determines the Omicron will be made available in the state’s prime referral healthcare institution- GBP hospital by February next year.
The tender process has already been completed for installation of the machine.
“Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) is the test method for identifying Omicron cases; the facility is not available in the state at present. Now, the samples are sent to the Kalyani laboratory and the tests are done. The facility will be made available in GBP hospital by February next year,” Chowdhury told the media.
Once the WGS facility is made available in the state, it would reduce the time for receiving reports of sample testing,” Chowdhury said.
He made an appeal to all to obey the guideline while celebrating Christmas and New Year. The state government would take strict action to ensure use of face cover, sanitizer and social distancing, he said.
According to Chowdhury, there is no need to worry but the people need to take extra precautions to stay away from Omicron.
He said, “Samples of 33 among 69 persons, who came to Tripura from abroad recently, were sent to Kalyani laboratory for genome sequencing. The reports of 31 samples were negative while the results of the two remaining samples are awaiting
Additional Secretary Anindya Bhattacharjee, Managing Director of NHM Tripura- Siddharth Shiv Jaiswal and State Surveillance Officer Dr. Deep Kumar Debbarma were also present in the meeting.
