Omicron: SA Returnee Causes Scare In Chandigarh, Jumps Quarantine, Goes To 5-Star Hotel
At a time when there is growing fear of the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in India, there was some panic in Chandigarh after a woman who returned from South Africa two days ago allegedly broke home quarantine and went to a five-star hotel in the city.
The woman who came to Chandigarh from South Africa, where the new variant was first identified and is listed as an at-risk country, on December 1 was asked to quarantine at home as per protocol.
However, on Thursday evening she allegedly broke the Covid protocols for foreign arrivals and went to a five-star hotel where she spent hours, before returning home.
The Health Department authorities here ordered that strict action be taken against her for violating the quarantine protocol.
FIR filed
"South Africa is one among the high-risk country. We have registered an FIR against a woman who returned from South Africa on December 1, we conducted her RT-PCR test and the report was negative. Now as per the protocol, she was supposed to be in-home quarantine for seven days but on December 2, she broke the home quarantine protocol and checked into a hotel," Yashpal Garg, secretary health and nodal officer, Chandigarh told ANI.
"The local administration has now been asked to direct all hotels to ask for the 15-day travel history of international travellers," he added.
Three Omicron cases in India
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in India has risen to three on Saturday after a person who came from Zimbabwe tested positive in Gujarat.
"Samples of the 72-year-old Zimbabwe resident sent to Biotechnological Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad tested positive for Omicron. The patient is in isolation since his admission. We had traced all his close contacts, screened them and they tested negative. But we will conduct the test of all his contacts once again," Nodal officer for Corona, GG Hospital, Jamnagar, Dr S. Chatterjee said.
As he had returned from Zimbabwe, an African nation and one of the "at risk" countries identified by the authorities, his samples were sent to Ahmedabad for genome sequencing, which tested positive.
The man is believed to be a native of Jamnagar who has been living in Zimbabwe for many years.
He arrived on November 28 to meet his father-in-law. After he got a fever, his doctor advised him to get an RT-PCR test done. As mandated, the private laboratory informed the health authorities that his report was Covid-19 positive.
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