Navi Mumbai: NMMC Commissioner in-charge holds meeting amid threat of BF.7 variant of COVID

In view of the rising COVID cases in some countries including China, the Heath Department of the Union and State governments have become cautious and have issued a slew of directions for officials including focusing on testing.

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner in-charge, Abhijit Bangar conducted an urgent meeting of the health department to take stock of daily COVID testing and vaccination drives.

Noting that large number of patients in China have been infection with 'BF.7' variant of Omicrom and four patients in India;s Gujart and Odisha states also have been infected with the variant, he said there is a need to spread the message that the threat of COVID is still not over.

At present, more than 500 RT-PCR testing and more than 600 Antigen testing are being done daily and the Commissioner directed to increase testing. He also asked for measures to start COVID testing in APMC markets and railway stations which have a large amount of traffic, like municipal hospitals, and civic health centers.

Along with this, the commissioner also directed to keep the COVID vaccination centers in Vashi, Nerul, and Airoli hospitals of the Municipal Corporation fully functional, paying special attention to COVID vaccination.

The central and state governments will soon receive the COVID prevention guidelines. The Commissioner gave instructions to take prompt action accordingly.

At this time, the civic chief Bangar directed to focus on surveys and vaccination in 6 outbreak areas where measles outbreak i.e. more than 2 cases have been detected.