No Omicron case detected in India yet, senior govt official says

Amid rising concerns over Omicron, designated by WHO as 'variant of concern', the Centre has announced stricter guidelines for travellers from or transiting through ‘at-risk’ countries.

Travellers wearing protective masks arrive at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata | Representational image | Photographer: Arco Dato | Bloomberg

New Delhi: No case of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus has been detected in India yet, a senior government official said on Monday.

The B.1.1.529 Covid variant or Omicron, first detected in South Africa last week, was designated by the World Health Organisation as a ‘variant of concern’, the health body’s top category for worrying coronavirus variants.

A senior official said no case of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus has been detected in India yet and Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia INSACOG is closely monitoring the situation and expediting the results of genomic analysis of positive samples of international travellers.

Amid the mounting concerns over the potentially more contagious coronavirus variant “Omicron’ spreading to many countries, the Centre on Sunday introduced stricter guidelines for people travelling from or transiting through ‘at-risk’ countries and issued a slew of directions to the states for ramping up testing-surveillance measures and health facilities.

It also decided to review the resumption of international flights.

The countries designated as ‘at-risk’ (updated as of November 26, 2021) include European countries, the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.