Omicron alert: Vizag administration search for 9 missing African passengers

Three passengers from South Africa and six from Botswana had arrived in the city after landing at different airports in the country.

More than 50 international passengers, who landed at various airports in the past 10 to 15 days, came to Vizag by air, road, and train. Some of them are not responding to phone calls and officials fear they are absconding.

District administration is on a high alert in view of the Omicron threat.

District administration has set up a screening center for passengers at the airport. While tracing the contact details of the foreign nationals who arrived in the Vizag city in the last 10 days, officials noticed that 10 people had come from Africa.

Passengers, who came from Africa, are not responding to the phone calls. These foreign nationals did not land directly in Vizag. They had arrived at various international airports and later came to Vizag. Officials said they might have undergone RT-PCR tests after landing at the airports.

However, the district administration is making sure to conduct RT-PCR tests to rule out any Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the Union health ministry on Thursday confirmed that two Omicron cases have been reported in Karnataka. "Two cases of Omicron detected in Karnataka so far through genome sequencing effort of INSACOG consortium of 37 laboratories established by the ministry of health. We need not panic but awareness is absolutely essential. COVID apt behavior is required," said Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR.

Also, a 35-year-old woman traveling from the United Kingdom to Hyderabad has tested positive for COVID-19 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, said G. Srinivas Rao, the director of public health (DPH), Telangana. The woman has been isolated at TIMS, Gachibowli, and her sample has been sent for genome sequencing. The woman does not have any symptoms, Dr. Rao said.