Health dept gears up to handle Covid variant ravaging China

The state health department in Ludhiana, India is asking health department authorities in the city to be prepared to deal with Covid cases, a new strain of the virus that is causing a surge in China. The department also advised residents to follow Covid norms in the face of apprehensions about the new strain. Civil surgeon Dr. Hatinder Kaur who attended the meeting with state health department officials on Saturday said that while there was no need to panic, authorities had asked them to be prepared on the Covid front. She said that they had been asked to increase testing with a target of 1200 tests per day, and that samples of people testing positive had to be sent to Patiala Laboratory for genome sequencing. The civil surgeon also said that officials discussed the number of beds in L2 and L3 and about oxygen plants in the district. She added that they had been asked to submit demand for medicines and logistics etc.