Amidst fear of a new variant of COVID-19, the Odisha Government on Sunday issued revised guidelines asking the health authorities to undertake constant and close surveillance on overseas returnees mainly from South Africa.

Testing, quarantine and genome sequencing will be mandatory for those coming from outside, particularly from other foreign countries. Instructions have been issued to districts and urban local bodies to monitor and screen the people coming from outside along with intensive testing to prevent outbreak of the Covid-19 variant Omicron, said Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra quoting the contents of the revised guidelines.

Meanwhile Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, in a video conference in Sunday, directed the district magistrates, Superintendents of police and Chief District Medical Officers to remain vigilant in the event of a possible third wave

“The physical classes in schools have now restarted in schools and colleges. Economic activity has picked up. All institutions, organizations and programs related to the implementation of livelihoods have been restarted. So at this point we need to be more vigilant, vigilant and proactive to prevent the effects of the possible third wave”, Mohapatra said.

Local development officials, sarpanches, ward members, Anganwadi workers, village and panchayat-level government officials, and volunteers have been collecting accurate information on the real situation in all areas, as well as covid infections.

Chief Secretary also directed the authorities to expedite the vaccination of those who are yet to receive 2^nd dose after the expiry of the stipulated time frame through house-to-house campaigns.

He also asked to speed up the process of providing compassionate compensation to the nearest relatives of those who died of COVID-19.

Suggesting the stricter implementation of COVID protocol, Mohapatra called for the enforcement of mandatory masking, social distance protection and the use of sanitizers. He also called for tougher and more widespread legal action, fines, etc. against individuals or institutions that violate the law.