All district administrations have been told to focus on improving vaccination coverage, especially for the elderly and immunocompromised individuals, and to ensure that there is 100% tracing of contacts and extended contacts for those testing positive for COVID-19.
In a letter to all the Collectors and the Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said despite awareness on COVID-19, including the latest variant of concern, Omicron, a lot of necessary constructive contribution and cooperation from the public, especially in the adoption of prevention and control measures, was mostly lacking.
He urged the officials to lead the COVID-19 appropriate behaviour campaigns by involving people from all walks of life. They should increase the monitoring and enforcement drives in addition to strictly enforcing the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for permitted activities.
The focus has to be on increased surveillance, continuing the aggressive and increased testing, tracking and treatment and complete adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and vaccination.
On vaccinations, Mr. Radhakrishnan said the coverage of the elderly and immunocompromised individuals should be improved. He said proper protocols should be followed for cases detected in international travellers and from localised clusters, and that 100% tracing of contacts and extended contacts should be carried out. Those with S-gene dropout should be identified and treated.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said travellers from countries-at-risk, who test negative on arrival, should be placed under home quarantine for seven days and should be tested again on the eighth day. People, including those travelling from not-at-risk countries and those who have not travelled, should get themselves tested at the first sign of symptoms and self-isolate to avoid any localised clusters of Delta or Omicron variants, he added.
