Home Ministry orders intensive surveillance of international travellers amid Omicron scare

The Union Home Ministry on Sunday said that it will review the standard operating procedure (SOP) on testing and surveillance of incoming international passers, especially from those nations that fall under 'at risk' category. This development comes after World Health Organisation (WHO) designated more contagious B.1.1.529 variant as a 'Variant of Concern'. It has been named 'Omicron'. 

Following a high-level review by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the 'Omicron' variant, Home Secretary on Sunday chaired an urgent meeting.

"The meeting was held with various experts, Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Dr Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Prime Minister, & senior officers from Health, Civil Aviation and other Ministries," MHA informed.

During the meeting, the overall global situation was reviewed and various preventive measures currently in place and the ones to be strengthened further were discussed.

"Genomic surveillance for variants to be further strengthened and intensified. Airport Health Officials (APHOs) and Port Health Officials (PHOs) to be sensitized for strict supervision of testing protocol at airports/ ports," Home Ministry said.

The government also informed that decision on the effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passengers service will be reviewed according to evolving global scenario.

Omicron scare: PM Modi holds review meeting

PM Narendra Modi on Saturday chaired a meeting with top officials to discuss the country's pandemic situation. PM Modi directed officials to be proactive in view of the new variant and discussed its implications for India. Taking to Twitter, he also asked citizens to continue social distancing and wear masks.

"PM instructed officials to coordinate with states to ensure that there are adequate buffer stocks of various medicines. He asked officials to work with the states to review the functioning of medical infrastructure including pediatric facilities," PIB informed.

Centre writes to states and UTs to enforce intensive containment measures

In wake of the Omicron variant threat, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to all states and UTs, asking them to enforce intensive containment measures, active surveillance and rapid vaccine coverage to curb the spread of the new COVID variant. 

The press release stated, "States should keep a close check on the emerging trend of cases and the positivity in an area and quickly delineate hotspots for effective containment of Covid-19. States should aim at achieving a positivity rate below 5% while focusing on increasing the number of tests and share of RT-PCR tests to aid in early identification".