Uttarakhand govt issues advisory to follow Covid prevention guidelines

With an uptick in Covid-19 cases in some states and detection of the first case of its sub variant JN.1 in the country, the Uttarakhand government has issued an advisory to all districts to keep a tab on the situation and strictly adhere to prevention guidelines.

However, no case of JN.1 sub variant of the coronavirus has been detected in the state so far, Health Secretary R Rajesh Kumar said.

Still, all districts have been asked to strictly follow the operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy in context of Covid-19, he said.

The advisory issued on Tuesday asked district medical authorities to monitor influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI).

Influenza and Covid tests of ILI and SARI patients should be conducted and their detalis entered into the Integrated Health Information Platform portal, it said.

All hospitals should be readied in terms of arrangements for Covid management, the advisory said.

Awareness should also be created among people for respiratory hygiene, it said.

India's first JN.1 case was detected in a sample taken from a 79-year-old woman in Kerala with mild symptoms on December 8. Earlier, a traveller from Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirapalli district was found to be infected with the JN.1 variant in Singapore.