UK woman tests negative for Omicron in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Dec 6: A woman from the UK who arrived in Hyderabad last week has tested negative for Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19, said a senior official of the Telangana Health Department on Monday. The 35-year-old woman had tested positive for Covid-19 upon her arrival at the airport on December 1. She was placed in home quarantine and her samples were sent for genome sequencing.

Director of Public Health, G. Srinivasa Rao on Monday said that the woman had tested negative for Omicron.

Twelve more passengers from 'at risk' countries had tested positive on arrival in Hyderabad on December 2 and 3. The genome sequencing reports of these 12 persons were expected by Monday evening, Rao added.

A total of 1,270 passengers have arrived in Hyderabad from 'at risk' countries since December 1. Of them, 291 passengers arrived on December 5.

The people who tested positive were placed in home isolation at Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and their samples were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology or Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics for genome sequencing to find out if they were infected by Omicron variant.

All passengers are being screened at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Those who tested negative will be home quarantined for seven days. They will be re-tested on the eighth day and if found negative, they will have to self-monitor themselves for the next seven days.

Earlier, the Director of Public Health said it would not be surprising if Omicron is detected in Hyderabad. The Omicron variant cases in Telangana or in other states are likely to increase from January 15, 2022, and might peak in February.