2 passengers from at-risk counties test +ve for COVID-19 at Hyd airport

Hyderabad: Two passengers traveling from at-risk countries tested positive for COVID-19 at the Hyderabad airport on Friday.

A total of 668 passengers were tested on Friday, out of which two tested positive. All those who tested positive are under isolation at TIMS in Gachibowli and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing.

Earlier, 13 passengers from at-risk countries had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here. They had, however, tested negative for Omicron. So far, no Omicron cases have been detected in Telangana.

Telangana has tested 3,235 passengers so far.

Passengers arriving from 12 'at-risk' countries which have reported the Omicron variant of COVID-19 now have to undergo RT-PCR tests at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad. This is in addition to pre-departure COVID-19 testing undertaken 72 hours before their departure.

The health department started implementing the new guidelines for international arrivals issued by the ministry of health and family welfare (MOHFW) from midnight of 30 November.

The 12 at-risk countries include all countries from Europe, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Israel.

India has so far reported 26 Omicron cases in five states but all with mild symptoms, the health ministry said on Friday. Of the 26 Omicron cases, nine are in Rajasthan, three in Gujarat, 11 in Maharashtra, two in Karnataka, and one in Delhi.

ICMR chief Balram Bhargava, meanwhile, advised caution against the new variant and said that although Omicron hasn't yet posed a high threat to public healthcare we still need to be vigilant. "We are trying to grow Omicron in a laboratory. Once that's done, we will be able to test the efficacy of vaccines," he added.