Telangana reports two more Omicron cases

Hyderabad, Dec 17 (IANS) Two more cases of Omicron were reported in Telangana on Friday, taking the state's tally to nine, a top health official said.

While eight of the passengers tested positive for the new variant of Covid-19 have entered the state, the ninth person left for Kolkata after arrival at Hyderabad Airport.

Director of public health Dr G. Srinivasa Rao told reporters that seven cases were detected among air passengers who arrived from countries other than "at-risk" countries while two cases were found positive among fliers from "at-risk" countries.

He said three Kenyans and one Sudanese were among those tested positive for Omicron. Two cases came from Abu Dhabi and one each from Dubai, United Kingdom and Czech Republic.

The director said a woman who came from the UK airport had tested negative for Covid-19 at the airport and she had gone to Hanamkonda, where she was under home quarantine. The second test conducted after a week found her to be positive for Covid and her samples were sent for genome sequencing. The result confirmed that she is infected by Omicron.

The official clarified that no indigenous case of Omicron was reported in Telangana and said people need not panic.

The director pointed out that Omicron cases were reported from 90 countries and in India so far 88 cases were detected in 11 states. He also said more than 95 per cent cases were asymptomatic.

"There is no need for panic and there is no need to see Omicron separately. It's part of Covid-19. Compared to the Delta variant which had led to hospitalisation of lakhs of people and death of thousands of people across the country, symptoms found among Omicron cases are not severe and it has not caused deaths except one death in the UK," he said.

He, however, said people should remain alert and follow all Covid related precautions as a surge in cases can create a difficult situation.

He said as per the guidelines issued by the government of India, all passengers coming from 10 "at-risk" countries were being screened at Hyderabad Airport. Since December 1, a total of 6,764 passengers from these countries have arrived at Hyderabad Airport. Of them only two were found positive for Omicron.

The remaining seven cases were detected among fliers from countries other than aat risk' countries. "We are conducting random tests on two per cent of passengers coming from countries other than "at-risk" countries. Those who are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated are being subjected to tests and if they test positive for Covid, we are sending their samples for genome sequencing," he said.