Thiruvananthapuram: The country is waiting for the results of three samples sent to the genome sequencing to detect the new Coronoavirus variant, Omicron.
Samples have been taken from three people from high-risk countries and have been positively tested for Covid-19 here.
Health Minister Veena George said that so far there was no threat in the state and more samples were collected from those from high-risk countries and even had the slightest symptoms.
Meanwhile, George defended circular which was issued by the Director of Health Services that district medical officers should not talk to the media.
He said that the circle would not be withdrawn.
Circular said that only the Minister of Health or Director of Health Services can talk about the problems related to Omicron to the media.
He said that circular was issued to have integrated information in messages that were forwarded to the media.
There is no prohibition on providing information to the media, but the decision is not to have conflicting reports given to the media.
On a visit made by him to the Roof Hospital and the criticism made by the hospital supervisor, George said that the visit was planned the previous day and it was a surprise visit made to the hospital.
More visits will be made in the future too.
George said he was not ready to listen to the criticism made by the hospital supervisor and was not ready to comment anything about it.
Meanwhile, the country has begun looking for a testing kit for omicrons in such a way that the test can be done in the laboratory here itself.
At present only the Rajiv Gandhi Center for biotechnology has this testing facility in the state.
Therefore the state government has decided to look for ICMR permits and the UNI Ministry of Health to conduct tests in the state itself if the number of cases of alleged increases.