Shimla: With the emergence of the new JEEN-1 variant of COVID in the country, the state government conducted a review of the COVID situation on Monday.
Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, chaired the meeting assessed the current conditions and the state’s preparedness for COVID.
Directives have been issued to all Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) to conduct tests for individuals suffering from cold and cough symptoms. It is noteworthy that the state has reported only two cases in the past 10 days, and as of now, no cases of this variant have been reported.
Health Secretary M Sudha Devi mentioned that in the last 10 days, only two COVID cases have been reported in the state. According to the guidelines of the central government, COVID drills have been conducted in district health institutions from December 13 to 17.
Taking into account the festive season, all Chief Medical Officers of the districts have been directed to investigate cases of cold, cough, and influenza. She highlighted the establishment of the first Insacog lab at Mandi Medical College, capable of identifying any variant of COVID through genome sequencing.
The state has a total of 8234 beds across health institutions, including 1187 oxygen-equipped beds, 325 ICU beds, and 333 ventilator-equipped beds. The inventory includes 795 ventilators, 4323 oxygen concentrators, 9650 oxygen cylinders, 46 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants, and 4 liquid oxygen plants.
