Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Amid the scare of spread of Omicron, a new variant of coronavirus, health department officials have launched a hunt to trace the people who travelled to Indore from foreign countries in the last one month.
The department had received a list of 157 international travellers who have come to Indore from various countries, many from countries put by the government ‘at risk’ including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Bangladesh, Lesotho, and others since November 1.
“We have collected over 15 samples of these people on Monday and are tracing others as well. We have asked them to remain in isolation and if anyone is found positive, his contact tracing would be done and his samples would be sent for genome sequencing,”
Chief medical and health officer Dr BS Saitya.
“We have received a list of people who come to Indore from various countries in the last one month. These people had entered the country from different airports and came to Indore. We have started tracing these people and taking their RT PCR samples along with keeping them in isolation,” chief medical and health officer Dr BS Saitya said.
He added that they have started taking samples of the people and suggesting they remain in isolation.
The CMHO also alerted people over the scare of new strains of the virus and appealed to the people to strictly follow the Covid appropriate behaviour to contain the spread of virus again.
Many people moved to other cities, returned
According to sources, officials of the health department are facing trouble in tracing these people as many of them have moved to different cities as they stayed in Indore for a brief period. Some of them have even returned to the countries from where they came. Those travellers also include a six-month old girl.
70 samples sent for genome sequencing pending
Sample reports of over 70 samples sent for genome sequencing to National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi are pending. The health department and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College have been sending samples to NCDC every fortnight but receive the report after one month.
People from UK, US, Bangladesh, and other countries
Country No of travellers
United States 83
United Kingdom 8
Pakistan 16
Bangladesh. 6
Canada 6
Sri Lanka 5
Australia 5
Germany 2
Colombia 2
Austria 2
Netherlands 2
Austria 2
Lesotho 1
Norway 1
Israel 1
Singapore 1
Belarus 1
Spain 1
New Zealand 1
