Search for woman from Botswana in Madhya Pradesh amid omicron variant
The officer said efforts were on to find the woman, identified as Khuno Oremeet Selyn, in line with guidelines issued by the Union government's health surveillance to check the spread of Covid-19.
A search is reportedly underway in Madhya Pradesh for a woman from Botswana who arrived in Jabalpur on November 18. Since the first cases of the omicron variant of Coronavirus were detected in Botswana, travellers from the country are being tracked and made to follow recently issued guidelines for Coronavirus.
Jabalpur chief medical and health officer Dr Ratnesh Kurariya said they were informed by an official from the Botswana Embassy that the woman is in isolation at a military organisation in Jabalpur. "We have asked him to share her mobile phone number and her local contact,” the officer was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The officer said efforts were on to find the woman, identified as Khuno Oremeet Selyn, in line with guidelines issued by the Union government's health surveillance to check the spread of Covid-19.
Dr Kurariya said the woman came to Jabalpur from Delhi, going by the records shared by the Union government. The location of her mobile number mentioned in Jabalpur's Dumna airport record was traced to Delhi.
The investigation conducted by police so far suggested that the phone has not been moved out of Delhi since the last one month, the PTI report said.
Meanwhile, the officials are also examining CCTV footage of the Jabalpur airport to find the woman. Information is also being gathered from hotels in Jabalpur and neighbouring districts, the official said.
As part of the surveillance process, the Central government was regularly providing lists of visitors coming to Jabalpur from abroad, Dr Kurariya said, adding last month, 164 people from the United Kingdom visited Jabalpur and they were contacted and their health status was checked.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week described Omicron as a “variant of concern” and it is being feared that the strain could bypass the current vaccines and prolong the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Monday, the world health body also warned that the risk related to omicron is "very high" and the strain is likely to spread internationally at a very high speed and could possibly have “severe consequences”.
The omicron variant was first detected in South Africa. Till now, India has not reported any cases of the variant. However, the Centre said on Monday that two clusters are under investigation in Maharashtra and Karnataka.