4 more test positive for Omicron at Hyderabad International Airport

HYDERABAD: Four more cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid- 19 were confirmed in Telangana on Thursday. With this, a total of seven international passengers who landed at the RGIA have so far tested positive for Omicron, all in the last two days.

Of these seven patients, six are in Telangana while one patient flew to West Bengal via a connecting flight. These four new cases of Omicron are a major cause of concern as three of the passengers came from Kenya, a country that has not been categorised as “at-risk”. Incidentally, vaccination levels in Kenya are extremely low due to what the WHO calls “vaccine inequity”.

Status of 4 positive patients unclear

It remains unclear whether these four new patients have been identified or not and isolated as Director of Public Health Dr. G Srinivas Rao stated that details would be furnished on Friday. 

These seven Omicron cases were detected from 21 Covid-19 positive cases diagnosed after screening 6,764 passengers at the airport. On Thursday alone, 120 passengers were screened and none tested positive.

Apart from this, Telangana recorded 190 cases of Covid-19 from 40,103 tests conducted. Another 195 previously infected individuals reported recovery and active cases stood at 3,805. The State also saw two deaths, taking the tally to 4,012.