2,000 more foreign returnees traced in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The state health authorities have, so far, been able to track more than 2,000 of the 3,324 foreign returnees, who arrived in the state after November 29.
They found the database of altogether 6,133 foreign returnees, who had filed self-declaration forms on the Air Subidha portal, until Friday. Out of the 6,133, the government has segregated 1,303 returnees from the countries “at-risk”.
“We are prioritising the collection of samples from the returnees of such countries for swab tests. Many samples have been collected and we are compiling the data as and when we are receiving them from the districts. We will keep tracing the foreign returnees, putting them in home quarantine and making them undergo the necessary tests on the eighth day of their arrival,” Bijay Mohapatra, director of health services, said.
European countries, including the UK, besides South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel have been identified by the Centre as being ‘at risk’ of the spread of the Omicron mutation of Covid. The Centre had sent the list of these countries to the states to help them track and trace flyers from there on their arrival here.
Ajay Parida, director of the Institute of Life Sciences here, said, “Apart from the 246 samples, which tested negative for Omicron after genomic sequencing, about 286 more samples are queued up in the laboratory for the same test. Hopefully, on Monday, we will be able to come out with the results of the genome study of the fresh samples. So far, these have only found to be carrying the prevalent Delta variant.”
Meanwhile, the state on Saturday reported 173 new infections against 302 recoveries. The government confirmed two more Covid deaths, taking the toll to 8,433. Ten districts didn’t report a single case.
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