What is Omicron?
According to the WHO, Omicron is a new variant of the Covid-19 virus that originated in South Africa and has put the world at high alert once again for the possibility of a new wave.
India new guidelines for international travel
Earlier, on November 26th the India government had announced that from 15th of December commercial international travel will be allowed to start full-fledged operations. But now due to the appearance of the Omicron covid variant the government of India has issued revised guidelines for once again restricting international travel.
According to India latest guidelines for international all people traveling to India from at-risk countries will have to undergo RT-PCR tests at the airport. They will have to wait at airport and will not be able to board connecting flights till they get the results of their RT-PCR test.
International travellers from other countries will be allowed to go home and self-quarantine for 14 days. But around 5% of these travellers from non-at-risk countries will also be tested randomly at the airport.
Another new guideline for India flights states that all travellers who are coming to India from at risk countries will have to submit a negative RT-PCR report and also their travel history of the last 14 days. These details will have to be submitted on the Air Suvidha portal created by the government of India. The RT-PCR report will be valid only if the test is conducted less than 72 hours before flight boarding time.
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Omicron cases in India
South Africa had first reported news of its Omicron covid variant on the 24th of November. Since then, no cases of Omicron strain have yet been reported in India, but extreme precaution is being recommended by doctors who experienced first-hand the intense crisis during India’s Delta variant second wave in April-May of 2021.
All states and UTs have already been advised to prepare additional quarantine, surveillance, testing and tracking facilities. International travellers will be kept under strict monitoring to ensure that there are no self-quarantine breaches. Many states have also started tracking any international travellers who entered the country over the last month.
The Omicron variant is highly transmissible, even more than the Delta variant. According to some preliminary research it may even be able to escape some vaccines. Director of AIIMS, Dr. Rajdeep Guelria has spoken about the immune-escape capabilities of Omicron and suggested re-evaluating the vaccines being administered in the country in the light of this new information. So caution is extremely important at this stage. All Indians are still being asked to follow masking and social distancing guidelines, even though strict lockdown has been relaxed in most parts of the country.
Since news of the Omicron Variant of Concern was announced by the WHO, many countries like India, USA, Canada, EU, Brazil, Singapore, Indonesia and others have already imposed restrictions on entry of international travellers. These next few weeks are crucial to control the spread of the virus and every possible measure needs to be taken to rid the world of this scourge of the Covid pandemic.
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Featured Image Credits – DNA