Chennai: Tamilnadu Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan today expressed concerns over the lack of Covid-19 appropriate behavior in public places and gatherings, in view of the Omicron variant.
In a letter to district Collectors and Greater Chennai Corporation, he said that unless there is a visible change of behavior among people and strict enforcement of masks, social distance, sanitisation ensuring ventilation in closed places along with increasing the pace of vaccinations, it will be difficult and impossible to contain the spread of Omicron and the already existing Delta variant.
Stating that the many people, including faculty, staff, students, and visitors at hospitals and medical colleges are not wearing masks, not strictly implementing perimeter control, Radhakrishnan said that it is more concerning in case of Omicron, as symptoms are very mild and a person may not even know that he is sick and would be unknowingly spreading it to many.
Based on preliminary data in contact tracing, it is clearly shown that the spread among close contacts and in closed unventilated rooms is significantly and extremely high in the case of the Omicron variant, he added.
The Health Secretary instructed the local authorities to stringently ensure implementation of the SOPs and if any person comes for a test, the person should be asked to be in self-isolation till the results come to avoid further spread in case the results are positive as Omicron has high transmissibility.
He has asked Collectors, GCC, and local authorities to intensify the vigil and ensure that SOPs are followed in gatherings, and containment measures as per the guidelines for the number of cases detected should be put in place along with contact tracing.