By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 13: The state government on Saturday said that COVID-19 should be handled like an endemic disease such as cold and flu. It however cautioned that although the situation is normal in the state, rigorous surveillance is on to detect any cases.
“COVID has now become an endemic disease no longer coming from outside like cold and flu it has its own different effects and we should handle it like any endemic,” said Principal Secretary of Health department, Sampath Kumar, adding that the department is well-equipped with facilities unlike earlier.
India reported a spike of 609 Covid cases on January 12, with an active caseload of 3,368. The death toll stood at about 5.33 lakh including six new deaths.
The rise in cases is attributed to the Omicron sub-variant JN.1 and declining temperatures. The country’s recovery rate is 98.81%, with a fatality rate of 1.81%. 682 cases of the JN.1 sub-variant have been reported in 12 states.
Asked about the preparedness of the state, Kumar said, “We are doing rigorous surveillance to detect any cases. We have the facilities unlike earlier and we can detect the new variant. Every day, we are making a report”.
“Our labs are good these days. They are collecting and trying to find out traces of the virus,” said Kumar.
Asked about the facilities that were put in place during the previous Covid waves, he said, “They are there. For example, we have the ICU bed capacity and oxygen capacity now. We know how to handle Covid”.
“We have all the capacity and it is not like earlier. If required, we can immediately operationalise all the oxygen plants but that situation is not there at all and we should not cause alarm,” he added.
Stating that the state has the capacity, he further said, “If there are cases, we get into alerting people and make sure things are OK.”
“General advisory has already been issued to stay protected and I am seeing a lot of elderly people already putting masks and a lot of changes are there,” he added.
