CHENNAI: So far, 28 international travellers tested positive for Covid-19 with ‘s’ gene drop, a marker for Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, in Tamil Nadu, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Friday.
The Health Minister said in the last two weeks, a total of 14,868 international travellers from both ‘at-risk’ and ‘non-risk’ countries were tested at the airports in the State. Of them, 70 tested positive. All these 70 samples were sent for genome sequencing. Results of 10 genome sequencing were given, of which one tested positive for Omicron variant (the first case in Tamil Nadu), eight for Delta variant, and one sample was not sequenced. The results of the remaining samples are awaited.
The minister said the Health Department officials traced 278 contacts of the man positive for Omicron and tested all of them. The Health Department will also write a letter to the Union Health Ministry requesting them to make changes in the Guidelines for International Travellers. At present, only travellers from ‘at risk’ countries (12 countries) have to undergo RT-PCR test on arrival and wait at the airports till the reports come. Of travellers from ‘non-risk’ countries, only two per cent are being tested in random sampling. Also, those with symptoms are tested, added the Health Minister.
But since people from ‘non-risk’ countries — Nigeria and Congo — tested positive with ‘s’ gene drop, the State will request the Union Ministry to make seven-day home quarantine for people from non-risk countries mandatory. They should be released only after a repeat test at the end of the home quarantine period. Also, people violating quarantine rules should be put in institutional quarantine, Subramanian said.
The State will also request the Union Health Ministry to conduct an RT-PCR test for all the international travellers, irrespective of the country they come from, on arrival before sending them home. However, the holding area in the airports may not be sufficient to make all these travellers wait till their RT PCR test report came. In that case, alternative arrangements would be made after discussions with the airport authorities, the Health Minister said.
The Minister was speaking to reporters on the DMS campus after launching an SMS facility for pregnant women and lactating mothers. Eleven different vaccines are given to children. All the due vaccine dates will be informed to the mothers by an SMS. They will also be informed about Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit scheme money crediting dates. Over 11 lakh pregnant women and lactating mothers will be benefitted, he added. Later in the evening, the Health Department wrote the letter to the Union Ministry.