6 coming from ‘at risk’ countries test positive for Covid-19, admitted to Delhi hospital

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

The six have been admitted to the Lok Nayak Hospital after four of them tested positive for COVID-19 and two “showed symptoms”, officials said. Their samples have been sent to the National Centre for Disease Control for genome sequencing to ascertain if they have the new variant,

Omicron

A dedicated ward has been set up for isolating and treating such patients, the officials added. Four flights originating from Amsterdam and London and carrying 1,013 passengers landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport between 12 night and 6 am. Of these passengers, four reportedly tested positive.

Three patients travelled on a flight from Amsterdam that carried 372 people. The fourth patient travelled with 176 others on a flight from London. All are Indian nationals. An official at the hospital said two more travellers who tested negative but have Covid-like symptoms have been brought to the hospital.

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.