Missing South African Nationals Traced In Bengaluru Amid Omicron Scare

All the passengers arrived to Bengaluru between November 12 and November 22. 

A medical professional testing passengers for coronavirus in an airport (File Photo)

Chennai: Nearly 10 South Africans who went missing in Bengaluru were traced by the civic body and police authorities in Karnataka’s capital city on Saturday. As South Africans fall under the high-risk category in the Omicron scare, the Bengaluru officials tried to trace them and send their swabs for the test again.

However, all of them were traced only on Saturday.

According to a report on IANS, after two patients tested positive for Omicron variant in Bengaluru, the health department officials were concerned about the spread of COVID-19 from people who returned from high-risk countries.

Hence, they decided to trace, test and track the movement of the South Africans. However, among the passengers who arrived in Bengaluru, 10 South African nationals went missing since they were not at their given address and their phones were switched off.

Following this, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike roped with police to conduct a joint operation and the team finally traced the South Africans. Now, the swabs of all of them have been sent to testing. All the passengers arrived to Bengaluru between November 12 and November 22. 

Totally, 57 passengers arrived to Bengaluru from high-risk areas during the 10 days' time. The Bengaluru health officials are also planning to send the samples of remaining people who returned from other high-risk places apart from South Africa to get a clarity on the presence of Omicron in the state. 

Till now four cases of Omicron variant have been detected in India. Of the four, two cases were detected in Bengaluru while one case was reported in Gujarat and another case was reported from Maharashtra on Saturday.