Omicron alert: 35YO woman traveling from UK tests positive for COVID-19 at Hyd airport

Hyderabad: 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.

"So far, the Omicron variant has not been detected in Telangana. The 35-year-old woman who travelled on a British Airways flight to RGIA Shamshabad has tested positive for COVID-19. Her samples were collected and sent for whole-genome sequencing. Whether she has Omicron or Delta variant will be known only after receiving the genome sequencing results," said Dr. Rao.

Health officials at the airport collected around 325 samples from passengers on the flight in which the woman was traveling. The remaining 324 samples have tested negative. The passengers who traveled with the woman include 239 passengers from Telangana, 72 from Andhra Pradesh, 10 from Maharashtra, two from Madhya Pradesh, and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Passengers who tested negative are put under mandatory home quarantine and their respective states have been alerted. All of them are to be tested again after eight-10 days by the respective state surveillance teams.

Mandatory RT-PCR tests

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 at 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 in Europe, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Israel.

As per the ministry's guidelines, the passengers have to stay at the airport till their reports are out. In case a person tests positive, s/he will have to undergo 14-days isolation at TIMS, Gachibowli. The positive samples will be sent to the laboratories in CCMB, CDFD, and Gandhi Hospital to identify the variant. Those who test negative will be asked to undergo home quarantine.

Meanwhile, six passengers arriving from at-risk countries tested positive for COVID-19 on 1 December in the country.

Health authorities conducted RT-PCR tests of the 3476 passengers who arrived on 11 international flights at different airports, except Lucknow, in the country on 1 December. Of them, six have tested positive. Their samples have been sent to INSACOG labs for whole-genome sequencing.