Delhi govt fully prepared to deal with new coronavirus variant Omicron: Satyendar Jain

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said his government is fully prepared to deal with the potentially more contagious coronavirus variant 'Omicron' and has set up a dedicated facility at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital if such cases are reported.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has decided to conduct RT-PCR testing on all people arriving from 'high-risk' countries, genome sequencing of the positive cases and mandatorily isolating the passengers according to the Centre's guidelines.

The Delhi Health Department has designated Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital as the dedicated facility to treat patients infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The hospital has been asked to earmark wards for isolating and treating such patients. ''The Delhi government is fully prepared to fight the new variant of coronavirus, which has also been declared as a 'variant of concern' by WHO.


Hereby, we are designating Lok Nayak hospital as a dedicated hospital to treat the new variant of coronavirus (Omicron),'' Jain tweeted. India has so far not reported any case of the new coronavirus variant Omicron, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed Parliament on Tuesday. Omicron is the fifth WHO-designated variant of concern first identified in South Africa.

The other four are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. WHO has said it is ''not yet clear'' if the newly-detected variant is more transmissible or causes more severe disease, but authorities across states in India ramped up efforts to deal with the evolving situation.