NEW DELHI: Eight passengers who arrived from the designated ‘at-risk’ countries at the Indira Gandhi International Airport have tested positive for Covid.
These passengers have been admitted to the state’s dedicated facility for Omicron virus at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital – where genome sequencing is being carried out.
Medical director of the hospital Dr Suresh Kumar told The Morning Standard, “Eight people from ‘at-risk’ countries have tested positive, while their genome sequencing results for detecting Omicron virus are awaited.”
A few symptomatic persons have also been taken in, the doctor said.
Of the eight Covid positive, two are from the United Kingdom, and one each from France and the Netherlands.
The capital has two genome sequencing labs at the LNJP hospital and ILBS.
The countries designated as ‘at-risk’ are in Europe including the UK; South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel. Under the new norms, RT-PCR tests are mandatory for passengers arriving from the ‘at-risk’ countries.
54 new cases in Delhi
Delhi on Friday recorded 54 fresh Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 0.09 per cent. The number of cumulative cases of the disease stands at 14,41,244.
Over 14.15 lakh patients have recovered so far. The death toll due to the coronavirus infection in Delhi stands at 25,098. Seven COVID-19 deaths were reported in the city in November.