The Uttar Pradesh government has launched a ‘special’ and ‘focused’ six-day screening drive in a bid to scale up preventive measures in view of the emergence of the new and the worst ever COVID19 variant — Omicron.

“The State will conduct a 6-day “focused sampling” drive from December 1 to 6,” Amit Mohan Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, was quoted in the press statement December 1.

“The objective of this 6-day special focused testing drive is to enable early detection if any followed by early treatment,” he added. The focus is on people who come in contact with a large number of people.

For the first three days, the drive will be conducted in engineering colleges, colleges, schools, while in the hospital, medical college the drive will be run for the remaining three days.

Also Read: Explained: What is known about Omicron — the worst COVID19 variant ever

The new variant of SARS CoV2 — B.1.1.529 — has been classified as a ‘Variant of Concern’ by the World Health Organization. As of today December 1, the total number of active COVID19 cases in the state is 92. Of all 153,569 samples taken in the past 24 hours, as many as seven samples have tested positive.

“While there is no situation at present which warrants panic or worry, the government has put over 73,000  ‘surveillance committees’ on alert mode to ensure thorough screening and timely identification, isolation and treatment of people showing mild symptoms to remove any chance of increased transmission of the virus or any water-borne, vector-borne diseases,” read the press statement.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to improve surveillance with a focus on airports, railway stations and bus stands. The state government has put the health teams in all the 75 districts of the state on alert.

In view of the rising cases of Omicron variant in other countries such as South Africa, Canada, Australia, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed to make arrangements for genome sequencing of COVID19 samples. The arrangements for genome sequencing are expected to be made at King George’s Medical College (KGMC) and Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) of the state capital Lucknow, and some other districts including Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Meerut.