'Omicron' Patients in Delhi will be treated At Lok Nayak Hospital

Hospital has made separate wards for isolating and treating patients

New Delhi: The Delhi Health Department has designated Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital as the dedicated facility to treat patients testing positive for the new COVID-19 variant 'Omicron'.

The department also stated that no patient with this new variant will be denied admission to hospitals on any level.

On Sunday, The Union Health Ministry had issued new guidelines for international travelers for reporting of 'Omicron', which has been classified as a ''variant of concern'' by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to the recent guidelines, a separate isolation unit will be set up for the patients indicating the presence of 'Omicron'.

"Accordingly, Lok Nayak Hospital is now designated as the dedicated hospital which will treat the patients detected with the new variant of SARS-CoV-2. Lok Nayak Hospital will designate one or more separate wards for isolating and treating such patients," the order states.

'Omicron' is the fifth WHO-designated variant of concern, firstly it was identified in South Africa. The other four are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.

The WHO has said it is "not yet clear" if the newly-detected variant is more transmissible or it can cause more severe disease, but authorities across states in India has made solid efforts to deal with the evolving situation.

Before this day, authorities in the Delhi ordered RT-PCR testing for all people arriving from ''high-risk'' countries, genome sequencing of the positive cases, and isolation is mandatory.