New Delhi, Nov 28 (FN Agency) The Home Ministry on Sunday held a high level review meeting with the officials concerned in the wake of new COVID-19 variant of concern ‘Omicron’ at New Delhi. The meeting was convened a day after the Prime minister held a detailed review meeting with the top government officials on Saturday. “Following high level review by the Prime Minister on the new COVID Variant of Concern ‘Omicron’, an urgent meeting was chaired by the Home Secretary today at 1130 hours” official statement said. The ministry said the decision on the effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passengers service, to be reviewed, as per evolving global scenario.
“Closer watch on emerging pandemic situations within the country will be maintained,” it said. The meeting was convened by the Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, with various experts, Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Dr. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Prime Minister, & senior officers from Health, Civil Aviation and other Ministries. Amid fear of the spread of Omicron’ ,the home ministry said the government will review the Standard Operating Procedure on testing and surveillance of incoming international passengers, especially for those countries identified ‘at risk’ category. Meanwhile, Union Health Secretary has written to states and union territories over the Omicron variant of Covid-19, asking them to enforce intensive containment and active surveillance measures and also increase coverage of vaccination. The new variant of concern, first identified in South Africa, has now been detected in several countries, triggering concerns over the alarming transmission rate.