Omicron variant: Srikakulam District admin on high alert

Srikakulam: With the Covidnew variant B 1.1.529 (Omicron variant) has been classified as a 'variant of concern' by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Union and State governments are on high alert.

As the Omicron variant is actively spreading in countries like Britain, South Africa,Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe,Singapore, Hong Kong, and Israel, District CollectorSriKesh BLathakar, on Wednesday, alerted the district and mandal level officials of variousdepartments to identify the people who returned from foreign countries in last two weeks, collect details of their travel history. istrict Medical and Health Department officials toconduct a door to door fever survey andprepare a detailed report on it.

The collector appealed people to follow Covid norms and wear mask whenever come out from their house. He directed concerned revenue,municipal, panchayat raj and police officials to impose penalty of Rs 100 on the people who are moving without mask.

He warned shops, establishments and commercial units with a penalty of Rs 25,000 and temporary closure if they fail to follow Covidprotocol.