HYDERABAD: GHMC Commissioner Lokesh Kumar has directed zonal commissioners to revive all the 30 isolation centres in the city, in the light of increasing cases of Omicron. These were earlier run by the civic body during the peak of the first Covid-19 wave.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Medical and Health department sounded an alert in Tolichowki area where two cases of the Omicron variant were detected among foreign nationals earlier. Sanitation workers swung into action and took up a series of containment measures. They conducted door-to-door fever surveys in Paramount Colony of Tolichowki.
Sodium hypochlorite was sprayed in the colony a disinfectant while officials tried to trace all foreign nationals living in the area. Contacts of the two Covid-positive patients are being traced and tested under the special drive. An awareness drive has been initiated and residents were told to follow Covid protocol strictly. Health workers conducted Covid-19 tests on all the residents of the two apartment buildings where the two foreigners were staying.
A woman from Kenya and a young man from Somalia tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival at the RGIA on December 12. Since they came from countries other than ‘at-risk’ countries they were allowed to go home, but their samples were sent for genome sequencing. The results showed them to be positive for the Omicron variant. Health officials traced both persons in Paramount Colony and shifted them to TIMS, Gachibowli, the government-designated isolation facility for Omicron cases.