Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to hold high level meeting on COVID-19 on December 26

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren is likely to hold a high-level meeting on December 26 to review the state government's preparations for COVID-19 situation, an official said on Saturday.

Several countries including China are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 infection, which is believed to be driven by BF.7 sub-variant of Omicron.

However, no new case of the highly contagious disease has been recorded in the state till 9 pm on Friday, according to Jharkhand COVID-19 bulletin. As many as 2,412 samples were collected and tested on Friday but all turned negative, the bulletin said.

Soren on the concluding day of winter session of Jharkhand assembly on Friday, expressed his concern over COVID-19.

"The past three years of the government has been challenging, mainly due to COVID-19. As per the media reports, the disease is rising again. Our health minister today had an interaction through video-conferencing with the union health minister to discuss state’s preparations. The guidelines regarding the disease and state’s situation will be known with time," CM said.

Jharkhand Health minister Banna Gupta informed the Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya about state's preparations to deal with the new variants of the disease.

Gupta sought information about the symptoms of the new variant BF.7 and also requested the Centre to provide guidelines related to its symptoms and treatment. He also requested to release Rs 110 crore pending with the Centre under the disaster fund.

The minister also informed the Union Health minister that Jharkhand will conduct a mock drill of PSA (pressure swing adsorption) plants on December 27.

The state health department has already asked the deputy commissioners of all 24 districts to gear up for the whole genome sequencing of positive samples of COVID-19 to track variants. They were also asked to be prepared for thermal scanning of people at airports, railway stations and bus stands and also keep a vigil on entry points of the state.