Make tests must for fliers from non-risk countries too, says TN

Tamil Nadu on Saturday requested the Centre to issue further set of guidelines on testing international passengers arriving in the State after a person from a ‘non-risk country’ tested positive for the Omicron variant recently, becoming the first such case reported in TN.

Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Dr T S Selvavinayagam in his letter to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Rajesh Bhushan requested that international passengers arriving in Tamil Nadu should undergo mandatory post-arrival testing of COVID as against the current practice of testing only those passengers who arrive from ‘at risk’ countries.

Selvavinayagam pointed out that as per the current guidelines issued by the Centre, only 11 countries along with the European countries including the UK were declared as ‘high risk’ and additional surveillance protocol followed for passengers from these countries were being adhered to, but no additional surveillance protocol was being followed for passengers arriving from ‘not at risk countries’.

Maha, Kerala, K’taka report more cases

India’s Omicron COVID count rose to 126 on Saturday after Karnataka and Kerala reported six and four cases respectively, while three more persons in Maharashtra also tested positive for the variant.

According to Central and state officials, omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories -- Maharashtra (43), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (8), Gujarat (7), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1).