Woman passenger from UK tests Covid positive at Hyderabad airport
The passenger has been admitted to the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) and samples were collected and sent for genetic sequencing.
Hyderabad: A 35-year-old woman, who reached Hyderabad from the United Kingdom in a British Airways flight on Wednesday, has tested positive for Covid-19 and has become State’s first suspected case of Omicron, the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that was first reported in South Africa.
The woman, a resident of Rangareddy district, was shifted to Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS), Gachibowli, and is under isolation. Health officials collected her blood samples and sent them to the designated laboratory for full genome sequencing, to ascertain whether it is Delta or Omicron variant. The genome sequencing results are expected in two to three days.
Upon arrival at the RGIA, close relatives of the woman tested negative in RT-PCR test and are under home quarantine. Their health status is being monitored by the district surveillance teams on a daily basis.
“On Wednesday, two international flights from at-risk countries UK and Singapore landed at Shamshabad airport. The British Airways from UK had 206 passengers and Singapore Airlines had 119 passengers. We conducted RT-PCR tests for all the 325 passengers out of which only one traveller has tested positive for Covid-19. We are waiting for genome sequencing results to ascertain whether it is Omicron or the existing Delta variant,” Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao said.
The woman traveller does not have any symptoms and she is in a stable condition, as her health status is being monitored on an hourly basis by the attending doctors at TIMS.
The remaining 324 passengers are under home quarantine. “On the 8th day, our surveillance teams will conduct RT-PCR tests for all these passengers. Those who test negative will remain in home quarantine for one more week,” Dr Rao said.
Out of the 324 passengers, 239 were from Telangana, 72 from Andhra Pradesh, 10 from Maharashtra, two from Madhya Pradesh and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The residential addresses of all these passengers have been collected and shared with respective district health surveillance teams in Telangana and other States. “The surveillance teams will be monitoring the health status of all these travellers and reporting back to us. We have also alerted the surveillance teams of the neighbouring States,” Dr Srinivasa Rao said.
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