The Union Health Ministry has said that a total of 39 international passengers tested positive for COVID-19 out of the 6,000 tested on arrival in the last two days, reported PTI, citing sources. Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya is also expected to visit the Indira Gandhi Delhi international airport on Thursday to take stock of the testing and screening facilities.
The country is on its toes with the latest spike in cases being driven by Omicron sub-variant BF.7, which the World Health Organisation has classified as ‘variant of concern’.
On Wednesday, four passengers travelling from international locations to Tamil Nadu tested positive for COVID-19 at the Chennai airport.
Meanwhile, 12 passengers arriving from high-risk countries tested positive for the virus at the Kempe Gowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Monday.
Four foreign nationals who came to attend the religious preaching of Tibetan Spiritual Leader Dalai Lama in Gaya tested positive for COVID-19. While one of them was from Myanmar, the other three are residents from Bangkok. They are currently in isolation.
Four international travellers from Myanmar tested positive for the COVID-19 virus at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport.
Two international travellers on Wednesday, one from Japan and other America, who are residents of Ludhiana, have also tested positive for the virus.
At the Mumbai international airport, two UK returnees have tested positive for the virus, and their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for genome sequencing.
In another news, a 40-year-old man, who returned from China, had tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, following which he has been isolated. The man returned to Agra from China via Delhi on December 23.
Earlier, on December 2, nine international travellers, including one from South Africa, tested positive for the virus.
Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in some countries, including China, the central government has ramped up its anti-coronavirus measures. It is now mandatory that passengers from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand undergo RT-PCR test, and states also conducted a mock drill on Tuesday to ensure the readiness of health facilities, including medical oxygen generation plants.