States step up guard, announce new rules amid Omicron scare
NEW DELHI: A day after India’s first two cases of the Omicron variant of Sars-cov2 were detected in Karnataka, the state government ordered that only fully vaccinated people will be allowed in public spaces such as theatres and educational institutions.
Several other states also stepped up checks and restrictions in the wake of the potential threat from the coronavirus variant that has now spread to over 30 countries.
The new restrictions in Karnataka came as authorities increased contact tracing to identify those who came in contact with two people infected with Omicron. One of them, a 66-year-old South African national, left India on November 27; the second, a doctor, tested negative for Covid in last week of November before his next sample came out as positive.
“The entry to malls, cinema halls/theatres shall be allowed only to the persons who are vaccinated with two doses of Covid-19 vaccine,” R Ashok, Karnataka’s minister for revenue, said on Friday in Bengaluru. The minister added that children whose parents have not taken both doses will not be allowed to attend physical classes in schools.
The government also said that all events at public places have to be put off at least until January 15, 2022. The minister, however, ruled out imposing lockdowns, asking people not to believe social media rumours.
“There shall be strict implementation of a five-fold strategy of test, track, treat, vaccinate and enforce adherence to Covidappropriate behaviour,” according to the new guidelines.
The government said that gatherings in marriages will be limited to less than 500. It announced, however, that the winter session of the state legislature in Belagavi, about 500km from Bengaluru, will start as scheduled from December 13.
The new guidelines also said that the government will start the compulsory testing of health workers, people above 65 years of age, and people with comorbidities, and that all government officials must be fully vacto attend office.
A total of 76.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state so far. This means that around 29.3% of the state’s 48.9 million eligible for vaccination have been partially vaccinated, and 63.5% have got both jabs.
Outside of Karnataka, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday issued fresh Covid-19 guidelines for travellers, emphasising on screening, and isolation of people with symptoms. An order issued by additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi made district officials responsible for the spread of Covid-19 due to travellers. “If Covid infection spreads in any district due to travellers, then the officers concerned for the district will be held accountable,” the order said.
The UP government asked district magistrates of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad to coordinate with the Delhi government to track international travellers coming to these districts, and the district magistrates and police commissioners of Lucknow and Varanasi to ensure systems were in place for the compulsory thermal scanning of all international arrivals.
The Madhya Pradesh health department also issued instructions for the mandatory screening of passengers at airports, railway stations and bus termicinated nals.
“We are tracing all the people who returned from ‘at risk’ countries and conducting their RT-PCR tests. District administration have been asked to follow their health condition for 15 days and ensure genome testing of every positive person who came from foreign countries. There are no interstate travel restrictions in MP,” the state’s additional chief secretary (health) Mohammad Suleman said.
The Union government has marked 11 regions, including all of Europe and several African countries, as “at-risk” based on their caseloads and the prevalence of Omicron cases.
Rajasthan, where nine members of a family, four of whom came from South Africa, tested positive for Covid -- their samples have been sent for genome testing -- has started random testing at public places. State health minister Parsadi Lal Meena said the number of tests per day will be increased from 28,000 samples to 100,000 in the next few days.
In Haryana, health minister Anil Vij instructed district police officials to book people found not wearing masks in public places.
He also asked health officials to increase testing and re-enforce contact tracing.
Several other states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, reiterated earlier orders of mandatory testing of all international passengers. These states have made mandatory a week’s home quarantine for passengers testing negative.