Tamil Nadu on Monday reiterated its demand that the genome sequencing centre in Chennai be put on a par with the Union Government facilities in Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.
Health Minister Ma. Subramanian, who took part in a meeting with the visiting officials of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme here, said he had also reiterated the State’s demand that the two vaccine production centres, at Chengalpattu and Coonoor, be allowed to produce vaccines to overcome the shortfall during the COVID-19 pandemic. “On an average, we are vaccinating 3.26 lakh persons a day,” he said.
“We are urging the Union government to permit us to declare cases of the novel coronavirus variants, such as Omicron, because the State has established a genome sequencing facility at a cost of ₹4 crore on the Directorate of Medical Services campus here,” he said.
“Though we have only 16 persons with the Omicron variant, there are 97 others who could have been infected. It would help to declare the patient’s status early as there is a delay in receipt of information from elsewhere. In the case of three persons from Nigeria, we declared them positive almost on the day of their discharge,” he pointed out.
Mr. Subramanian said the State had more visitors from not-at-risk countries; hence, the Union government should lay down guidelines for quarantine of passengers from these nations. He said the State wanted the Union government to permit random testing of 10% of the passengers from not-at-risk nations as against the current rate of 2%.
Monitoring performance
Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said the team, which included two epidemiologists, would monitor the State’s performance in detection of and follow-up treatment for the new variant, vaccination and adherence to the COVID-19 protocol.
The team’s itinerary included visits to the airport to assess the testing procedures, the laboratory and control room, besides the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research and the Government Medical College Hospital at Omandurar Government Estate, a dedicated COVID care centre. The team would also bring under its surveillance a COVID care facility of the Chennai Corporation, Dr. Radhakrishnan said.
The Health Secretary said there was no change in the protocol for containment of the Omicron variant. The Health Department was looking out for local clusters. “We are doing saturation test wherever there are clusters. At Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, 3,370 persons were tested and 39 infections were detected. In the last 10 days, we have tested eight lakh people. We have some districts where the rate of infection continues to be high,” he said.
