Bihar on alert in view of Omicron threat: CM Nitish Kumar

Bihar is on alert in view of the threat from Omicron, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Tuesday.

Kumar today inaugurated the Command and Control Centre of the Health Department at Vikas Bhawan. Speaking at the event, he said, "We are highly alert in view of the Omicron threat. Till now, over 9 crore COVID-19 vaccinations have been done in Bihar. We will achieve 100 per cent vaccination soon."

Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Sunday said that the state is taking precautions against COVID-19 in view of Omicron, a new variant.

"The state is taking every possible precaution against COVID-19 in view of the new Omicron variant. RT-PCR tests will be conducted of people in Bihar who have come back from other countries. Foreign travellers who came to the state were found Covid-19 positive and all the samples were sent for genome sequencing. We are also giving the Centre information about people who have their Bihar address on their passports but do not live here anymore and are trying to find out about their new address as well. We are doing testing of close contacts of those tested COVID positive," Pandey said.

"Whenever someone from Bihar comes back from abroad, the Centre informs us and we send health officials to do their Covid test. Bihar has reported 37 cases of COVID-19 during the last three days and none of these are of the Omicron variant," said Pandey while talking to ANI.

He urged the public to follow COVID-19 protocols of mask-wearing, social distancing and also to get administered with both doses of Covid vaccination.

Meanwhile, states including Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat have reported cases of the new COVID-19 variant.

On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'.

( With inputs from ANI )