RATs at religious places in 5 dists of Nashik division

Nashik: Radhakrishna Game, the Nashik divisional commissioner, has directed the district administrations of Nashik, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalgaon and Nandurbar to announce a slew of measures at

religious places

, airports and railway stations in the wake of the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant of concern called Omicron.

Game, on Saturday, told TOI that the administrations of these five districts have been instructed to immediately start random rapid antigen tests (RATs) at religious places like the Trimbakeshwar

temple

in Nashik, the Sai temple in Shirdi and the Shani Shingnapur temple, which is 70 km from Shirdi, among other places.

Game said, “Certain religious places in these five districts are registering significant footfall of pilgrims and with the identification of a new Covid-19 variant, there is a need to step up the surveillance, even though the Covid situation is stable at present.”

Game has also asked the district administrations to coordinate with the Railways to start screening of the passengers alighting at various stations, especially the busy ones like the Nashik Road station, Bhusawal, Jalgaon etc.

“We have three airports — at Shirdi, Nashik and Jalgaon — in the region. The administration must coordinate with the airport authorities concerned to start thermal screening of air travellers arriving, particularly from abroad via flights from Mumbai, Delhi etc.” said Game.

“I would appeal to people to maintain the Covid appropriate behaviour, including wearing masks and avoiding overcrowding, since these could lead to a fresh spike in cases,” he added.

Game said the district and health administrations are making all efforts to improve the vaccine coverage further. “Our health workers are making untiring efforts to vaccinate the beneficiaries as fast as possible. In some districts, even vehicles are being provided to bring the beneficiaries to the vaccination centres or the health workers are travelling to villages to inoculate the beneficiaries,” Game said.