HYDERABAD: Testing for Covid-19, particularly for the prevalence of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus among international air passengers arriving at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in the city may not serve any purpose.
The variant is now in the community. Surveillance at the airport could well be of no use now, according to director of public health & family welfare Dr G. Srinivasa Rao. He suggested that checking all incoming international passengers for the Omicron variant would provide no additional benefit to the control of Covid in the city and state.
Airport surveillance for the Omicron variant started on December 1 and till January 5, 90 passengers arriving to the city from at-risk, and not-at-risk countries had tested positive for the Omicron variant. Most of those found Omicron positive were foreign nationals coming to the city for ‘medical tourism’. Four others were identified as local contacts or those whose Omicron infection history could not be traced.
Dr Srinivasa Rao said starting Thursday, the health department would remove the airport Omicron surveillance data from its daily Covid-19 bulletin.
