New variant: CM orders re-enforcement of COVID-19 safety norms

Conduct only RT-PCR tests, he tells officials

With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus ringing alarm bells, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered that the officials should again enforce the guidelines related to wearing of face masks and only RT-PCR tests be done in order to achieve accurate results.

Taking stock of the prevalence of COVID-19 and the precautions to be taken against the emerging variant, on Monday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said mock drills should be performed at oxygen plants in all the government hospitals and special medical teams posted in the international airports at Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore to screen passengers travelling to Andhra Pradesh.

Officials told the Chief Minister that 15% of the samples were being sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad every day to get genome sequencing done and a laboratory equipped with that facility would be soon coming up in Vijayawada.