No cases of Omicron variant found so far in India, says health minister

As countries began to impose new restrictions on the newly discovered Omicron variant, which is said to be more lethal than the Delta variant, which was the cause of India’s devastating second coronavirus wave, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday that no case of the new variant has been detected so far in the country.

Addressing the upper house of the Parliament, Rajya Sabha, during the question hour, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandvaiya said, “No case of COVID19 variant Omicron reported in India so far”.

Owing to the information received on the virus, the minister said that an advisory has been issued in this regard. He further assured that all necessary precautions are being taken to stop the virus from entering the country.

“We are immediately checking suspicious cases and conducting genome sequencing. We have learnt a lot during the COVID crisis. Today, we have a lot of resources and laboratories. We can manage any situation,” the minister said.

His remarks came on the day when Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a review meeting with states and UTs on Tuesday and advised them to ramp up testing for early identification and management of cases.

While underlining that the new variant doesn’t escape RT-PCR and RAT tests, Bhushan asked states and UTs to ensure adequate infrastructure and supervised home isolation. ln view of the possible threat that the new Variant of Concern (VoC ) can pose to the nation, the ministry has asked all states and UTs to focus on intensive containment, active surveillance, enhanced testing, monitoring of hotspots, increased coverage of vaccination and ensure augmentation of health infrastructure.

Meanwhile, India has issued new guidelines for the international passengers arriving in India, after some countries reported the cases of this variant. As per the advisory, the self-declaration board form on Air Suvidha Portal, which has the travel history of the last 14 days of all international passengers arriving in India, is filled completely before boarding.

The new guidelines also said that airlines shall put in place a proper randomization process for testing about 5 per cent of the passengers in flights on arrival. “Additional RT-PCR facilities, as required, may also be set up at all airports,” it added.

Similarly, Genestrings lab is deploying its staff at the Delhi airport for testing the passengers for COVID is increased the testing capacity, as Delhi airport witnessed huge international arrival passengers on peak time. The lab also aims to provide the test reports in four hours to reduce the waiting time period of the passengers by ensuring adequate requirements of staff

The B.1.1.529 Covid variant or Omicron, first detected in South Africa last week, was designated by the World Health Organisation as a ‘variant of concern’, the health body’s top category for worrying coronavirus variants.

The Centre on Sunday introduced stricter guidelines for people travelling from or transiting through ‘at-risk’ countries and issued a slew of directions to the states for ramping up testing-surveillance measures and health facilities. It also decided to review the resumption of international flights.