Any individual with fever, cough, sore throat to be considered COVID suspect unless proven otherwise: Govt

January 2, 2022

KEY STORY

Amid a sharp spike in cases of new Omicron COVID-19 variant in the country, the Central government on Friday issued a new directive to all the States and Union Territories in a bid to contain the virus spread.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) DG Dr Balram Bhargava has written to chief secretaries of all states/UTs asking them to set up round-the-clock functional RAT (rapid antigen tests) booths at different locations, engage medical and paramedical staff and encourage the use of home test kits.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and ICMR DG Dr. Balram Bhargava write to chief secretaries of all states/UTs set up round the clock functional RAT booths at different locations, engage medical and paramedical staff, and encourage the use of home test kits pic.twitter.com/lZngvdqZge

— ANI (@ANI) December 31, 2021

“Any individual presenting with fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, the recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and diarrhea should be considered as a suspect case of COVID-19 unless proven otherwise,” the health ministry said in its new directive.
Earlier today, official sources warned saying that the reason behind the spike is the Omicron variant which has started replacing its predecessor Delta in India and the world.
“The trend of an increasing number of COVID-19 cases shows that it is due to Omicron, which is replacing Delta in India and globally as well,” ANI quoted the sources as saying.

Omicron tally crosses 1,000 in India

As many as 309 new cases of highly transmissible COVID-19 variant were detected in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s overall tally of the new mutant variant to 1,270 cases, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Of the total, 374 infected persons have been discharged, it added.
With 450 cases, Maharashtra remains the worst affected by the new variant, followed by Delhi (320), Kerala (109), Gujarat (97), Rajasthan (69), Telangana (62), Tamil Nadu (46), Karnataka (34), Andhra Pradesh (16), Haryana and Odisha 14 each, while West Bengal has reported 11 cases so far.