Four more Omicron cases were detected in Telangana on Thursday. Of them, three are from Kenya and one is of Indian origin, said Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao. With this, seven Omicron cases are detected in the State, including three (7-year-old boy sent to Kolkata) from Wednesday. Out of these, one passenger is from an ‘at-risk’ country and seven from ‘non-risk’ countries.
Omicron in Telangana
A 23-year-old female from Kenya and 24-year-old male from Somalia had tested positive for Covid on arrival at the Hyderabad International Airport on December 12. Since they came from countries other than ‘at-risk’ countries they were allowed to go home, but their samples were sent for genome sequencing. The results available on Wednesday showed them to be positive. The health officials traced both the persons in Paramaount Colony and shifted them to Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS), the government designated isolation facility for Omicron cases.
Meanwhile, negligence is being blamed on state government for this fast spreading of new Covid-19 variant. It is being criticised that the officials have failed to identified international travellers, test and isolate them and if found positive send them for treatment. With the latest experience, the state health officials should be alert and test all the foreigners arriving to Hyderabad, even people arriving from ‘non-risk’ nations should be tested.
According to the Union government guidelines, all the people arriving from ‘at-risk’ nations have tobe tested for Covid with the help of rapid RT-PCR test, the persons who have undergone test will have to stay in the airport until the results have come. People with positive will have to be sent to hospital while negative result people will have to go for home isolation. Is this being properly followed?
Passengers traveling to Hyderabad from ‘non-risk’ countries are let lose! Only 2 per cent of the people are being tested. These persons will also have to wait in the airport till the results arrive.
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Surprising 13 people were found positive from the 2 per cent, which is not a good sign for Hyderabad. Out of the 13 persons, 6 persons have been identified to have Omicron virus. But no one is sure about how many people of 98 per cent travellers are infected and spreading the virus! There is a definite need to check this and control, otherwise Hyderabad and Telangana will end up being the hotspot for Omicron very soon!
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