Comments
Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has urged the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to issue further guidelines for additional surveillance of all international passengers arriving in the State may be similar to international passengers from 'countries at-risk'.
Currently, only 11 countries (these include the European nations as well as the United Kingdom (UK)) are declared as "at-risk" countries, and additional surveillance protocols followed for passengers from these countries. No additional surveillance protocol is being followed for passengers from "not at-risk countries".
Only two per cent of passengers from "not at-risk countries" are being randomly tested with RT - PCR and permitted to leave the airport even before the results are declared, thereby increasing chances of missing passengers from "not at risk countries" infected with Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 from being detected and leading to rapid transmission of Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the community, said TS Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, in a letter to the Union Health Ministry.
As on December 17, 12,767 passengers from 'countries at-risk' and 2,101 passengers from 'not at-risk countries' have been tested. Of these, 22 turned out to be positive on the day of arrival and 13 turned out to be positive on 8th day retesting from 'countries at risk'. Among "not at-risk countries", 7 turned out to be positive or turned out to be positive on 8th day testing and 16 contacts also turned out to be positive.
The samples from the 70 persons who were tested positive have been sent for Whole Genomic Sequencing. One person from Nigeria (not at-risk country) turned out to be positive for Omicron variant. Seven more persons from "not at-risk countries" viz. , Turkey, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Dubai and 4 persons from United Kingdom (At risk country) has "S gene drop" tested through TAQ PATH assay RT - PCR, which is a characteristic feature of Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 pending genomic sequencing.
About 16 contacts of 4 positive persons from "not at-risk countries'' also turned out to be positive with "S gene drop" tested through TAQ - PATH assay RT - PCR. Out of 28 'S gene drop' identified, only 4 are from 'High Risk Countries' and the remaining 24 are from 'not at-risk countries' or their contacts.
All the positive contacts of 'S gene drop' and 'Omicron variant Covid positive persons have turned positive within 48 hours, thereby having the possibility of short incubation period. The exposure period of positive contacts with 'S gene drop' and 'Omicron variant Covid positive persons was also as low as two hours thereby making it highly contagious, thereby rapidly transmissible.
The letter urged the ministry that all international passengers arriving in Tamil Nadu should undergo mandatory post - arrival testing for Covid - 19. If found positive, they will be treated as per existing protocol. They should be allowed to leave the airport or take a transit flight only if they are found negative.
All negative passengers should be advised to undergo Home / Institutional quarantine compulsorily for 7 days and re - tested again on 8th day of arrival in Tamil Nadu. If found positive, they will be treated as per existing protocol. If found negative, they may be advised to self - monitor their health for further period of 7 days, the letter said.
Meanwhile, at the 15th special Covid-19 vaccination mega camp held across Tamil Nadu on Saturday, a total of 19,07,009 beneficiaries got inoculated. Of the total, 6,21,942 took the first shot and 12,85,067 took the second shot, says a press release from the state health department.
Over 8 crore people have taken the Covid vaccinations - both government and private sector put together. Of this, 2.63 crore people got the shots in the special mega camps.
As on Saturday, 84.26 per cent of population in the State have got their first dose while 54.73 second dose, says a release.
The daily coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu on Saturday declined further to 614 from 621 on Friday. After 665 persons were discharged, the number of active cases was 7,346.
There were nine deaths registered and 1,00,175 samples tested.
The number of new cases in Chennai was 125 (127) and in Coimbatore was 104 (102), says a health department data.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.