Hyderabad: Gudem, a village of the Mustabad Mandal in the Rajanna Siricilla district has imposed a self lockdown for 10 days after a Dubai returnee turned positive for Omicron variant of Covid-19. His wife and mother have also turned positive for Covid-19, however, it is yet to ascertain whether they are infected with the Omicron strain or not.
Speaking to Siasat.com, Mustabad medical officer Dr. Sanjeev said that 28-year-old Chandu arrived from Dubai on December 16 but didn’t turn positive in the preliminary testing at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) Hyderabad. But after further investigations by the medical department, he was found to be positive for Covid-19 on December 20. Genome Sequencing confirmed that it was the Omicron strain. The district medical authorities moved the gulf returnee to KIMS hospital, Hyderabad, the same night.
Samples of 14 primary contacts and a total of 64 samples were collected and 2 out of them (wife and mother) turned out to be Covid positive. 53 samples were also collected from a marriage he had attended in the village of Narayanapur of the Yellareddypet Mandal.
Srinivasa Rao, husband of the village sarpanch Saritha Srinivasa Rao, told Siasat.com that the panchayat gave a call to the residents of the village to shut down meat and grocery shops and self impose a lockdown voluntarily to protect the whole village from the virus and everyone obliged. Also, no movement from in and out of the village is allowed from Thursday for 10 days, he said.
“Arrangements have been made for the supply of vegetables and other essential commodities to the villagers,” he added.
A total of 9,381 passengers arrived at Hyderabad Airport from 10 “at risk” countries since December 1. Of them, 259 arrived on Wednesday. Four of those who arrived Wednesday were found Covid-positive and their samples were sent for genome sequencing.
Health authorities at Hyderabad Airport are conducting RT-PCR tests on two per cent of the passengers coming from other than “at risk” countries. As per the Centre’s guidelines, they are being allowed to go home even if they test Covid positive. However, their samples are being sent for genome sequencing. If they test Omicron positive, the authorities are tracing them on the basis of the address provided by them on arrival at the airport.