Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the state government to impose restrictions on large gatherings of people for Christmas and New Year celebrations as the Omicron variant of Coronavirus becomes a growing concern in the state.
The court has further ordered the Telangana government to conduct Covid-19 tests on people entering the state from other states. The High Court directed the Telangana government to issue directions within two or three days.
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In less than a month since its discovery, the Omicron variety has spread to 106 nations, with India seeing a rise in cases and experts warning about an Omicron-triggered third wave in the country.
In this context, the Delhi administration issued a ban on all Christmas and New Year festivities and gatherings on Wednesday. Similarly, if more than 200 people are invited to a party in Mumbai, the organisers must obtain written authorization from the municipal officials.
The Karnataka government has also imposed restrictions on Christmas and New Year celebrations. The government instructed that public events would be banned from December 30 to January 2 to curb the spread of the Omicron. All restaurants in the state would operate 50 per cent seating capacity and mandatory complete vaccination conditions.
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Meanwhile, 14 fresh Omicron cases have been reported on Wednesday taking the tally in the state to 38. According to the Centre's guidance, the international passengers arriving at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad are being RT-PCR tested at the airport.
People testing negative are being sent home while the passengers testing positive are being admitted to Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS). Further, the samples of positive patients are sent to genome sequencing to check the prevalence of Omicron variant in the patients.