The latest variant of the Coronavirus is spreading scare amongst the citizens due to lot of misreporting. The recent test of 3 UK returnees came out positive which resulted in spreading the Omicron Scare.
According to the reports, three passengers arrived at Goa Airport from the United Kingdom have tested positive for the Covid-19 infection on Friday which ultimately resulted into Omicron scare.
The flight in which these three passengers were found to have been infected with the coronavirus was carrying 234 passengers, said the health minster of Goa.
According to the minister Vishwajit Rane, It is not clear if the said passengers are infected with the Omicron Variant of Coronavirus. “There were around 234 passengers in the Air India Flight 146.
The whole of 234 passengers have been asked to undergo the mandatory home quarantine and they will be retested on Day 8 or earlier if found symptomatic.
“This is with reference to flight AI 146 that arrived from the UK today morning. 237 travellers tested on arrival. 3 patients (passengers) have been tested positive,” the health minister said.
“All other negative travellers will be kept in strict home quarantine and will be retested on day 8 or earlier if symptomatic. According to the Government of India guidelines/protocols, necessary directions have been issued to DHS in this regard,” Rane added.
The UK is among a group of countries placed in ‘at-risk’ category by the central government in view of the recent detection of the Omicron variant of coronavirus. Passengers from these countries have to follow additional COVID-19 testing and quarantine measures.
It may be recalled that earlier this month five sailors from Merchant Navy Vessel arrived in Goa were tested positive and suspected to be infected with Omicron variant.
Authorities in Goa have already isolated five crew members of a merchant navy ship. Their swab samples have been sent to the Pune-based National Institute of Virology for genome sequencing and reports are awaited.
Several cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected in the country with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Delhi reporting new cases. However, patients from Maharashtra and Rajasthan have now recovered and have been discharged from the hospitals.
Meanwhile, the office of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday announced that the restrictions on scheduled international commercial passenger services from and to India shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA.
Circular issued by the DGCA stated that the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger services has been extended till January 31 next year.
India has added several countries to the list from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in the country, including post-arrival testing for infection.
The current list of “at-risk” countries for the COVID-19 Omicron variant includes the United Kingdom, other countries in Europe, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong, and Israel.
