- NET Web Desk
The State Health Department has clarified recently that it is ready to fight against any epidemic by the COVID-19 and its other variants.
Speaking with the media, Assam Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said, “The department is undertaking all necessary measures in order to start few district-level COVID hospitals soon after the situation comes under control.”
He added, “The department had converted some general hospitals to Covid hospitals to control the situation in the state. However, we reconverted such hospitals to general hospitals when the Covid situation relented. Now, we have asked deputy commissioners and joint health directors to make such hospitals fit for the treatment of Covid patients to meet any emergency.”
Speaking on the state’s necessary precautions regarding omicron, the health minister said, “When a person comes from abroad, the department tests him at airports. If the person tests Covid positive, he goes under treatment in hospitals according to the Covid protocol. Even if the person tests negative, he will undergo a seven-day home quarantine. During the seven days, officials from the department go to his residence twice for the RT-PCR test. If such a person tests Covid positive, the department sends his sample to laboratories outside the state for genomic sequencing that detects infection of omicron variant. Such patients get treatment in isolation in hospitals as per the Covid protocol. The department has not found any omicron-infected Covid patient in the state so far.”
