Saturday, 13 JANUARY 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
A 19-year-old woman, a foreign national, was found positive for Covid-19 on Friday. The woman is staying in a hotel in Tapovan area (near Rishikesh) of Tehri district and is reported to be recovering from the disease. The State now has three patients of Covid-19. On Thursday the health department reported that the genome sequencing test of the 72 year female patient of Dehradun revealed that she was suffering from JN.1 variant of the Covid. Following reporting of the new cases of the Covid-19 the department has stepped up the hospital based surveillance and the doctors have been asked to keep an eye on the cases of influenza. The State nodal officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Pankaj Singh told The Pioneer that the sample of the new patient will be sent for genome sequencing. The genome sequencing is done to determine the strain of the Coronavirus. The new variant JN.1 of Covid-19 is increasing in different parts of the country and the reporting of a case of this strain in the State has shown that JN.1 has already entered the State.
The chief medical officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr Sanjay Jain said that 50-60 samples of patients are being tested for Covid-19 daily in the government and private labs in the district. He said that the health department is on an alert mode for Covid-19. The CMO said that the cases of seasonal flu increase during winters as many viruses become active. He said that the hospitals have been directed that the patients suffering from respiratory illness, lung and heart ailments should be monitored and tested.
The state government has directed the health department that the operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy in the context of Covid-19 should be followed and the patients suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and SARI should be tested for Covid-19.
