In wake of a slight surge in COVID-19 cases in Kerala, authorities in Maharashtra conducted a mock drill to take stock of medical infrastructure
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As the new COVID-19 variant JN.1 has been detected in Kerala, along with a slight surge in cases there, officials in Maharashtra said a mock drill was recently conducted to take stock of the available infrastructure in the state in case numbers start rising. The state reported 11 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday; eight cases were reported from Mumbai, two in Thane, one in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
As of December 19, there are 35 active cases in the state—27 from Mumbai, five in Thane, two in Pune and one in Kolhapur. “The numbers show a rise in Mumbai because our surveillance and reporting system has strengthened over the years. We have a large number of testing labs and the state’s major hospitals are here, so it is expected that the city will see a slight rise now and then, but it is nothing alarming,” said Dr Daksha Shah, executive health officer with the BMC’s health department.
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She added that there are no specific guidelines from higher-ups, “But the city is prepared,” in case of a surge. On the other hand, state health officials said 655 government hospitals, 575 private hospitals, and 14 medical college hospitals have been identified across the state if the variant leads to a surge in cases.
“We have conducted a mock drill of these facilities and taken note of the manpower, nurses, doctors, testing kits, beds, ambulances and other infrastructure. We are also taking measures to ensure the numbers are adequate,” a state health official said. “We have already started genome sequencing and so far, the new variant has not been detected. There is no different treatment or precautionary measures for the new variant and people need to take precautions in the same way as before,” he said.
As of now, according to health officials, there is also no data to suggest that symptoms of JN.1 are any different from those of its predecessors and neither is there any evidence of its severity. At present, the dominant variant of COVID-19 in Maharashtra is Omicron XBB.1.16.
Meanwhile, the Union health ministry has also written to states asking them to monitor cases of influenza-like symptoms, conduct adequate testing and send all positive samples for whole-genome sequencing. Karnataka has already made face masks mandatory for people above 60 and those with comorbidities. The southern state neighbouring Kerala has also made masks compulsory for those with symptoms of fever, cold and cough.
35
Active cases of COVID-19 in the state
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