Omicron Scare: Haryana Ramps Up Testing

Gurgaon: The country has increased testing for Covid-19 in the last 15 days after worries about the new Omicron variant.
Before November 25, 22 Haryana District conducted 19,000 tests every day, which has now increased to 39,000.
This includes RT-PCR and antigen tests.
Gurgaon, which is used to carry out 3,000 tests every day before, has tested an average of 4,000 samples per day, followed by Faridabad with 3,000 samples.
The two districts contributed 19% of the total tests carried out in the state.
Meanwhile, districts such as Noah and Kaital have been found behind, carry out less than 1,000 tests every day.
“We have increased daily testing to ensure that we identify the earliest new cases.
All districts have been asked to follow strict testing steps and Covid norms.
We have a target to do more than 35,000 tests every day in Haryana at this time because of the threat of omicron .
Every district has been given a test target, “said Secretary of the Additional Head of Haryana (Health) Rajeev Arora.
Covid patient contact testing and contacts are the key to curbing the spread of infection.
If the contact is tracked in a few days and their samples are tested immediately, it helps administration ensure timely treatment of patients and prevent their health condition from being critical.
Experts show that anyone with flu-like symptoms must be tested for covid.
There is a need to increase the sequencing of covid patients by taking samples randomly, especially if there is a history of international travel or a group of new cases, they said.
“Omicron variants have the capacity to spread faster than other variants, so we must be very careful from the beginning of their period to ensure and control the deployment at the initial stage.
Testing of strengthening and searching infection is a vital step to limit its spread,” said Dr.
Manoj Goel , Director (Pulmonology) at the Fortis Memorial Research Institute.
Haryana, however, continues to depend on the laboratory in Delhi for the virus genome sequencing because it still does not have its own facilities for that purpose.
The Ministry of Health said PGIMS, Rohtak will soon be able to do a genome sequence.
“We will begin the process within a week.
We have infrastructure now.
We send samples to Delhi at this time,” said Dr.
Dhruv Chaudhary, The Nodal Officer for Covid-19 in Haryana.