3 contacts of international passengers test positive for Covid-19 in Maharashtra

As many as three close contacts of 25 international travellers, who landed in Maharashtra, have been found positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19), news agency ANI reported on Thursday. “Samples of all three have been sent for genomic sequencing,” the Maharashtra government's public health department stated.

According to the department, field surveillance of all foreign passengers who arrived in the state since November 1 is currently underway. As many as 28 samples collected from both airport as well as field surveillance have been sent for genome sequencing. “Out of these, 25 are of international travellers and three belong to their close contacts,” ANI reported, citing the health department.

Until Thursday morning, a total of 861 international passengers have been tested with RT-PCR in Maharashtra to find out if they are infected with Covid-19.

This development comes on the day India reported its first cases of Omicron Covid-19 variant, after two people tested positive for the newest strain. Two men, aged 66 and 46, tested for the Omicron variant in Karnataka, with state health minister Dr K Sudhakar informing that the 66-year-old man is a South African national, who has already returned to his homeland.

Following the detection of the cases of Omicron Covid-19 variant in India, the country has now joined a list of 30 other nations, which have so far confirmed the presence of the strain. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified Omicron a “variant of concern”, but, also stressed on the fact that blanket travel bans from affected countries will not help in combatting the new strain.

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Notably, several countries, including the US, the UK and Japan have imposed travel bans on southern African countries due to Omicron's discovery.

The Centre, however, on Thursday asked Indians not to panic. During a press briefing, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Balram Bhargava said Covid-appropriate behaviour must be followed, and that people must not delay getting fully vaccinated against the virus.