Union Health Minister holds meeting with Health Ministers of states and UTs
Mail News Service
Ranchi, Dec 23 (IANS): Jharkhand Health minister Banna Gupta on Friday said that the state is prepared to deal with COVID-19 cases and that it has already taken adequate measures to ensure the safety of the citizens.
“We will take immediate steps as soon as there would be a rise in Covid-19 cases. We are prepared and have taken adequate measures,” he said.
Gupta also accused the Central government of not taking COVID “seriously”. “Earlier, the Centre did not take the Covid-19 pandemic seriously. Now they are seriously tackling it by taking cognizance of the situation arising in China. We have held talks with the Union health minister in this regard,” he said.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavia today held an online review meeting with the Health Ministers of all states and Union Territories to ensure preparedness against an impending Covid-19 surge that has already taken China in its spate. Gupta also attended the meeting. He said fresh Covid cases were on the rise in many countries and hence preparedness was essential. He said Jharkhand would work with the Centre to deal effectively with the pandemic threat.
Gupta suggested that international flights and passengers from China and other such countries should be stopped to prevent any spread of the infection.
Notably, in the last six months, India reported four cases of the BF.7 Omicron sub-variant, which is driving the current surge of infections in China.
Sources said there are currently 10 different variants of Covid-19 in the country, with the latest being the ‘BF.7’.
Mandaviya had on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country and the preparedness of the public health system for surveillance, containment, and management of the pandemic.
He urged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Emphasizing that the pandemic is not over yet, he asked officials to be fully geared up to challenge and step up surveillance.
“Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases globally, the central government has briefed all states to conduct genome sequencing of samples”, the additional chief secretary of Health Manoj Agarwal had said earlier.
There has been an alarming surge in Covid cases in China, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States. The spike is being blamed on the new Omicron sub-variant BF.7, which has also been detected in four Indian states.
Meanwhile, the last Covid-19 fatality in Beijing, which was seeing thousands of Covid positive cases before the revocation of the Zero Covid policy was on November 23.