New Delhi: While the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Monday called for RT-PCR tests for anyone flying in from "high-risk" countries where the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has already been detected, officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport said that they are also ramping up facilities for this.
The DDMA, in its Monday meeting, also directed that all positive cases caught at the airport tests be mandatorily genome sequenced so that the Omicron variant may be detected as soon as possible.
At the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) meeting, the chief secretary of Delhi was told to ensure continued contact and coordination between the Civil Aviation Ministry and other departments and ministries concerned to ensure concurrent evaluation and speedy decisions, officials said.
According to officials, the DDMA meeting, chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal, discussed in detail the current Covid situation and decided to renew as well as strictly adhere to the test, track, treat and isolation strategy along with strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour and enhanced vaccination.
The Health Department was directed to ensure adequate availability of beds, medicines and oxygen to tackle any emergent situation. It was also advised to ramp up the vaccination drive for the remaining citizens by all possible means, they said.
In addition to this, the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital has created a separate isolation ward for any case of the Omicron variant that they might detect in the coming days.
The hospital has been asked to earmark wards for isolating and treating such patients.
The health department also said that no patient with the new variant will be denied admission to hospitals on any ground.
And with preparations being made at the airport for testing, Genestrings, which is carrying out COVID tests at the IGIA, on Monday said it is "well prepared" and will be increasing manpower and testing equipment across labs so that results can be delivered in four hours.
Currently, Genestrings has more than 600 people at the airport for testing purposes. With the new guidelines, the company will test about 1,500 passengers per day.
Sisodia said there was an "uncertainty" over the spread and impact of the new coronavirus variant in the world but the Union government has stressed that there would be no negligence in preparations and the situation will be monitored.
He said the Delhi government is ready to deal with the situation in case Covid cases rise.
"The Delhi government has been making preparations going by the experience of the second wave of Covid in April-June. We have kept availability of hospital beds on alert mode and those reserved for dengue will be taken back for Covid."
The countries designated as 'at-risk' (updated as of November 26, 2021) include European countries, the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
The Capital on Monday reported another Covid death - the third in three days after weeks of no deaths — along with 34 new cases. The daily positivity rate rose to 0.08 per cent with active cases currently at 285 here.