Isolate Covid-Positive Travellers, Their Contacts

Leaving no stones unturned, the Union Health Ministry on Monday asked states to not only isolate individual travellers who test Covid-19 positive but also quarantine their contacts.

- Sohini Das, Shine Jacob & Ruchika Chitravanshi

Even those passengers who have tested negative for Covid infection must be followed up by the state surveillance units at specific intervals if found symptomatic.

These stringent guidelines came in from the health ministry after reports suggested that a 32-year-old man who had returned to his Dombivli home (on the outskirts of Mumbai) from Cape Town via Dubai and Delhi had tested Covid-positive. He was picked up from his Mumbai home on Sunday by civic body officials who are conducting an extensive drive to track and trace people who returned from the Omicrondetected nations between November 14 and 26.

The man's samples were sent to Kasturba Hospital's genome sequencing laboratory on Monday. If found positive for the Omicron variant, it could well be India's first case infected with the new variant spreading in African countries.

Meanwhile, in Karnataka, two South African citizens who arrived in Bengaluru tested positive for Covid-19. What's causing concern is the slight variation in one of the cases compared to the delta variant. The authorities have reportedly contacted the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for assistance.