India News | Telangana Health Minister Asks Officials to Ensure Preparedness to Deal with Any Rise in COVID Cases

Hyderabad, Dec 22 (PTI) Amid fresh concerns over COVID-19, Telangana Health Minister T Harish Rao on Thursday directed officials to ensure preparedness with regard to availability of medicines, oxygen, ICU beds and others to deal with any rise in cases in the State.

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Rao, who held a meeting with the health officials, instructed that the samples of positive cases be sent to the State-run Gandhi Hospital in the city for genome sequencing in line with the Centre's guidelines, and to conduct screening at the airport, an official release said.

The Minister, who appealed to the citizens not to panic about the virus but to be alert, said the government is prepared to deal with the situation.

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He suggested that those who have not taken the COVID-19 vaccine should take the shot immediately. Others should take the booster dose. The State, under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has been highly successful in dealing with the COVID-19, he said. Telangana reported six COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and the cumulative number of infections stood at 8,41,253. The number of deaths cumulatively was 4,111. The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday urged all States and Union Territories to ramp up the whole genome sequencing of positive samples to keep track of newer variants.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)