Omicron Scare: 1000 People Landed In Mumbai From African Countries In Last 15 Days, 100 Tested. BMC On Alert

About 1000 travellers have come to Mumbai from African countries, 100 have been tested from the 466 who have been listed so far.

New Delhi: In the last fortnight about 1000 travellers have landed from African countries to Mumbai where the 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus which is considered to be potentially highly transmissible has been detected, a senior official of the city civic body told PTI.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday warned that the global risk from the Omicron variant is very high based on early evidence, saying the mutated coronavirus could lead to surges with severe consequences.

So far a list of 466 persons has been received out of which swab samples were collected of at least 100 travellers, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani told PTI on Monday.

The UN health agency, in a technical paper issued to member states, said "considerable uncertainties remain about the variant, that was first detected days ago in southern Africa.

The airport authority informed that a 1000 traveller landed in Mumbai in the past fortnight, Kakani was quoted by PTI as saying "Out of the 466 travellers, 100 are from Mumbai. We have already collected their swab samples. Their reports are expected soon. It will be clear if they are positive or negative to coronavirus". 

"There won't be an issue if their test report is negative, but the civic body is going to conduct genome sequencing of positive samples, along with the S-gene missing test that is advised by the WHO for faster detection of the infection due to Omicron, without genome sequencing," he said.

He explained that if the S-gene is missing, then it is presumed the traveller is infected with Omicron and then following genome sequencing will confirm the infection.

The infected travellers, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic, will be shifted to the civic body's institutional quarantine facility at the civic-run Seven Hills Hospital in suburban Andheri, he said.

"We have to upgrade the facilities. One or two wards are already activated, but as and when required, we can activate more wards in the same jumbo facilities," he told PTI.

The BMC has started its preparations amid the rising concerns of Omicron, all its five hospitals and jumbo facilities are ready. Measures are being taken for the structural audit, fire audit, oxygen supply system audit, stocking adequate medicines and appointment of manpower. Five jumbo centres are already functioning, he added.