Amid emerging concerns of new COVID-19 variant 'omicron', hospitals in Delhi have been asked to be on high alert and ensure coronavirus safety measures.
According to a report by NDTV, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has directed the Chief Secretary, Police Commissioner and other senior officers of the national capital to ensure strict adherence to all COVID-19 protocols in public places and functions. He has further asked hospitals to be fully prepared to deal with any emergency, sources told NDTV.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), in its meeting on Monday, is likely to take a call on RT-PCR testing of passengers deboarding from international flights, and quarantining of passengers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Hong kong and other countries where a new variant of Covid has been reported, they said.
The meeting chaired by the Lt Governor will be attended by experts and civil aviation ministry representatives, sources said.
Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop flights coming to India from those countries which are affected by the new variant of the coronavirus.
In a tweet, he emphasized that the country had "recovered" from the COVID-19 pandemic with "great difficulty".
"I urge Hon'ble PM to stop flights from those countries which are affected by new variant. With great difficulty, our country has recovered from Corona. We should do everything possible to prevent this new variant from entering India," Kejriwal tweeted.
Modi was on Saturday briefed about the new 'Omicron' variant of the coronavirus, and he asked officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions in light of the "emerging new evidence".
The new variant of COVID-19, feared to have a high amount of spike mutations unseen before, has been detected in South Africa, with authorities there confirming 22 positive cases associated with it on Thursday.
