Health Minister directs officials for Covid preparedness in Telangana

The Minister directed the health wing to be on alert and expedite preparations to ensure proper healthcare facilities in government hospitals.

Hyderabad: Health Minister, Damodar Rajanarsimha on Wednesday directed the health department to be in a state of preparedness to meet any kind of exigencies, in case of a surge in Covid infections due to the new corona virus variant JN.1.

In a review meeting, the Minister directed the health wing to be on alert and expedite preparations to ensure proper healthcare facilities in government hospitals and preparations made for regular Covid mock drills.

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There was need to ensure government healthcare facilities at all levels including District and Area Hospitals, PHCs and Community Health Centres, Basthi and Palle Dawakhanas, have adequate Covid testing equipment, stocks of life-saving drugs and trained staff, in case JN.1 triggers a major wave of Covid infections, he said.

The health authorities will also work closely with researchers from Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSCOGG) so that genomic surveillance of Covid positive samples are taken-up on large scale.

The Minster said that between December 6 and December 20, a total of nine individuals in Telangana had tested positive for Covid and none of them needed hospital admissions, as they are recovering in home isolation. In the last 24-hours, the authorities have also conduced 319 Covid diagnostic tests and the positivity is around 0.3 percent.