TN health dept issues fresh norms in wake of looming threat from Omicron

Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine T S Selvavinayagam said the testing should be done for individuals who had taken up international travel during the last 14 days, healthcare workers with symptoms of Covid-19 and those patients having severe acute respiratory infection (SARI).

For the international passengers arriving to the State, he said, they should self-register on the Air Suvidha Portal before the scheduled travel and also upload a negative RTPCR report of Covid-19. Each passenger should submit a declaration with respect to authenticity of the report, he said.

Travellers arriving from “at risk” countries should submit sample for post arrival of Covid-19 test and if they are tested negative they would follow home quarantine for seven days. A Re-test on the eighth day of the arrival in the India should be done and if negative, they should further self-monitor their health.

“If such travellers are tested positive, their samples should be sent for genomic testing analysis,” he said.

Passengers arriving from “non-risk” countries would be allowed to leave the airport and they should self-monitor their health for 14 days post arrival.Two percent of such travellers arriving from non-risk countries shall be tested for Covid-19 and they are tested positive, they shall be managed as per laid down standard protocol and samples would be sent for genomic sequencing analysis, he said.

The Health Department has written a letter to the Centre seeking permission for mandatory testing of international passengers arriving from all countries and the approval from the government of India was “awaited.”

The official said localities in a city or a town where international travellers are found to be positive with variant of Omicron, even single case should be included as a “containment zone” and intensive action by the health authorities should be taken up with an aim of breaking the chain of transmission.