Omicron: GHMC initiates precautionary measures

Hyderabad: Following two Omicron cases reported from Tolichowki, the civic administration has swung into action and taken up a series of measures in the area.

Since the two persons, one from Kenya and another from Somalia, reside at Tolichowki, the authorities have imposed restrictions in the area and are treating it as a containment zone.

Teams have also carried out Covid testing covering more than 150 residents in the vicinity and teams of the GHMC are spraying disinfectants in the area.

Telangana on Wednesday reported its first Omicron positive Covid-19 infections with two foreign nationals, one from Kenya and the other from Somalia, testing positive for the new variant of SARS-CoV-2.

The Omicron positive patients from Kenya and Somalia, both residents of Tolichowki, have been traced by the surveillance teams of the health department and admitted to Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) Gachibowli for isolation. Both the patients are stable and do not have symptoms related to Covid-19.

Kenya and Somalia are not part of the ten at-risk countries, from where international passengers are screened and mandatory RT-PCR tests are conducted at the RGIA airport since December 1. Both the Omicron patients tested Covid positive only when the surveillance teams of the health department were conducting random tests.

“Our airport surveillance was efficient because both of them tested Covid positive during our random tests. We randomly collect 2 per cent to 5 per cent of swab samples from international passengers who reach Hyderabad from non at-risk countries. During such checks, the two nationals from Kenya and Somalia tested positive. We have informed the MOHFW about the need to thoroughly screen all international passengers,” Dr Rao said.

Based on the guidelines on conducting RT-PCR tests from MOHFW, all the passengers arriving at the international airport from at-risk countries have to undergo RT-PCR tests. However, there are no specific guidelines for international passengers arriving from countries that are not included in the list of at-risk countries. As a result, the State health authorities allowed the two Omicron positive patients to remain in home isolation till their genome sequencing results were processed.

“We allowed them to remain in home quarantine and collected their blood samples and sent them to CDFD for genome sequencing. By Tuesday evening, we were informed that both had tested Omicron positive and we started the process of tracing them,” he added.

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