Hyderabad,  The Telangana government on Monday announced holidays for all educational institutions in the state from January 8 to January 16 in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases.

At a meeting with officials to review the pandemic situation in the state, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directed the Education Department to declare holidays for educational institutions.

The health officials, however, briefed the Chief Minister during the meeting that as per the guidelines issued by the Central government, the current situation in the state does not call for declaring a lockdown.

The officials suggested appropriate steps to prevent public gatherings to check the spread of Covid-19.

The health officials, in their report to the Chief Minister, stated that by taking steps like compulsory wearing of masks, avoiding public gatherings and strictly adhering to Covid norms, the situation can be controlled.

In view of the rising number of Covid cases, the Chief Minister wanted Health Minister T. Harish Rao and health officials to ensure all facilities in government-run hospitals. They were directed to arrange adequate number of beds, oxygen beds, medicines and testing kits

The Chief Minister said the government was ready to take all steps to tackle the Covid situation.

He said that people should not panic about Omicron but at the same they should not be careless. People should remain alert, practice self-discipline and follow the Covid guidelines issued by the government, he added.

He noted that 99 per cent of the beds in government hospitals have been provided with oxygen facility and asked the officials to also turn the remaining one per cent into oxygen beds. In the past, the state's oxygen capacity was 140 tonnes but now it has been increased to 324 tonnes. He wanted officials to take measures to further enhance the capacity to 500 tonnes.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that 20 lakh home isolation kits are available in the state, and he directed them to increase the same to one crore. Similarly, he also wanted the Health Department to ensure availability of two crore testing kits against the existing availability of 35 lakh kits.