6 people coming from ‘at risk’ countries test positive for Covid-19

New Delhi | A total of 6 persons have been found positive for Covid-19 travelling from ‘at risk’ countries on the first day of the operation of the revised guidelines for international travellers.

A total of 11 international flights have landed at various airports across the nation coming from ‘at risk’ countries since the implementation of the revised guidelines in the wake of new Covid variant Omicron. These flights carrying 3,476 passengers landed from ‘at risk’ countries from midnight to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, said the Union health ministry.

All 3,476 passengers were administered RT-PCR tests at the airports and 6 out of them were found Covid-19 positive. The samples of the positive passengers have been sent to INSACOG labs for Whole Genomic Sequencing.

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The government revised the guidelines for international travellers as a public health response measure for the control and management of the new variant of Covid-19 which has been designated as a Variant of Concern by the World Health Organization.

“Government of India continues to keep track of the evolving situation, and supporting states, UTs in the fight against the pandemic through ‘whole of Government’ approach”, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The Centre on Tuesday advised the states and UTs to ensure preparedness of health infrastructure like availability of ICUs, O2 beds, ventilators, etc. and to implement ECRP-II, with the focus on rural areas and paediatric cases.

In a virtual meeting with states and UTs on the public health response measures, Dr Balram Bhargav, DG ICMR, said that the Omicron variant doesn’t escape RT-PCR and RAT tests. Hence, the states and UTs were advised to ramp up testing for prompt and early identification of any cases. The states were advised target testing of passengers from countries not “at-risk”, as part of the ramped up testing.

IANS

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