Desk 06-Dec; Omicron is quickly spreading like wildfire in India. The country recorded 17 more cases of Omicron infected patients on December 5 which has become a matter of grave concern for the Centre and state governments. Nine people in Rajasthan’s Jaipur, seven in Maharashtra’s Pune and a fully vaccinated man who arrived in Delhi from Tanzania, were all infected with the new Covid-19 variant, taking the country’s total tally to 21. 21. Quoting sources, news agency ANI reported on Sunday that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation will likely meet today and discuss administration of Covid-19 vaccine’s additional dose to immune compromised individuals and pediatric vaccination.
Most of the people who have tested Omicron positive have either recently arrived from African countries or had come in contact with such people. It is high time that the government came up with a solution to either ban international air travel completely for a few days or implement strict rules like mandatory vaccination and wearing of masks in public. A few days earlier, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had also urged the Prime Minister to put a stop to international flights.
As of now, in line with the Centre’s guidelines, international airports across India are intensively screening and testing all passengers from ‘at-risk’ countries. All travellers have to go through RT-PCR tests on arrival, and their test results have to be negative in order to leave the airport. The list of countries deemed “at-risk” for now includes the United Kingdom, all 44 countries in Europe, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Israel. Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya visited the IGI airport on Sunday and reviewed RTPCE testing facilities for passengers. He later tweeted that 35 rapid RT-PCR testing machines are functional at Terminal-3, which can reduce the testing time to even half an hour.
Meanwhile, India reported 8,306 new cases and 8,834 recoveries in the last 24 hours, as per the data shared by the Health Ministry on Monday morning. The country’s active caseload currently stands at 98,416 which is actually the lowest in 552 days.(CNS)
