CUTTACK: With the administration yet to trace as many as 286 foreign returnees and the first case of Omicron detected in Cuttack city, the threat of spread of the highly transmissible variant of Covid-19 looms large in the district.
Around 1,144 persons have so far returned to the district from various nations in the last one month. While the district administration has already identified 858 returnees, the whereabouts of 286 have not yet been ascertained.
Health officials have so far examined the swab samples of 388 foreign returnees through RT-PCR test. While 379 samples tested negative, the sample of a returnee from Jagatsinghpur district who was staying in a hotel at Dolamundai tested positive. The test report of the rest eight returnees is awaited.
A senior health official said all foreign returnees should be isolated at the airport for undergoing RT-PCR test and allowed to leave for their native places only if they test negative. As not all the returnees are being restrained at the airport, it is difficult to trace them, he said.
City health officer Satyabrat Mohapatra said that all the 30 staff of the hotel where the Nigeria returnee was staying had undergone RT-PCR test and tested negative on Monday. “We will conduct the test on them again to clear any doubts and confirm whether they are infected,” he said. District Covid Nodal Officer Dr Umesh Ray said as per government guidelines all the samples of those testing positive for Covid-19 in the district will be sent for genome sequencing. Meanwhile, a 14-bed special ward has been kept ready at SCB Covid hospital to treat infected patients.