BackOmicron: COVID testing compulsory for passengers from 'at risk' nations at these 3 airports. Details here
The airports in Chennai, Madurai, and Coimbatore have started compulsory testing of passengers arriving from 11 'at risk' countries
PremiumCompulsory testing for COVID-19 has been initiated for passengers arriving from 11 'at risk' countries at the airports of three Tamil Nadu cities - Chennai, Madurai, and Coimbatore - in view of the new variant Omicron.
The airports in Chennai, Madurai, and Coimbatore have started compulsory testing of passengers arriving from 11 'at risk' countries where Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading rapidly, " Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian told news agency ANI on Thursday.
Tamil Nadu government has recently issued a new set of SoPs for air travel as fears loom large around the variant.
As per the new directive, passengers on arrival from these nations are to stay at the airport till their RT-PCR result comes negative. Meanwhile, random sampling will be conducted for travellers coming from countries other than the ones categorised as 'at risk' nations, said S. Dharmaraj, Director at Tiruchirappalli International Airport, as quoted by ANI.
Yesterday, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia informed at the Parliament that 11 countries - the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel - have been placed in the 'at-risk' category.
Two cases of the new Omicron variant of Coronavirus have been detected in Karnataka, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.
COVID--19 tally in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu reported 715 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. According to the Tamil Nadu government health bulletin on Thursday, the state has reported a total of 27,28,350 cases of COVID-19 so far.
With 12 deaths reported in the last 24 hours due to the infection, the death toll in the state climbed up to 36,504. The total active cases stood at 8,155.
The new variant of COVID-19, first reported in South Africa, has been classified as a 'variant of concern' by World Health Organisation (WHO). As per WHO, , the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.
Dozens of countries have imposed travel restrictions on the southern African nations since the mutation was discovered.
(With inputs from agencies)
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