Amid rapid Omicron spread, India ups travel surveillance

Amid rapid Omicron spread, India ups travel surveillance

Flyers From ‘At Risk’ Nations Must Quarantine

29.11.2021

With the proposed resumption of international flights on December 15 under review, the government issued fresh guidelines on Sunday, mandating RT-PCR test on arrival for all passengers from Covid at-risk countries. While those testing positive will be isolated and their samples sent for genomic testing, those testing negative will have to home-quarantine for a week and test on the eighth day.

As of November 26, the list of at-risk countries include European nations, the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel. Flyers also have to declare their travel details for the past 14 days.

The Centre has asked states and UTs to focus on containment, surveillance and increased vaccination.

The new norms came on a day when the new variant surfaced in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia and more countries tightened travel restrictions. Israel barred entry to foreigners and approved controversial phone-tracking of contacts. Indonesia and Saudi Arabia too imposed curbs. While South Africa questioned the “act first, ask questions later” approach of the global community, calling it a blow to its economy, the European Union said it needed to buy time. AGENCIES

6x more transmissible than Delta: Experts

Based on preliminary analysis, experts suggest Omicron has six times higher potential to spread (R value) than the Delta variant. The 32 spike mutations suggest it could evade tests and be more transmissible, said Dr Vinod Scaria of the Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology. Experts fear it may not respond to monoclonal antibody therapy.