Bhubaneswar: Amid the omicron variant scare, the Odisha government today issued fresh guidelines for foreigners and returnees from other countries.
The restriction came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with top health officials on Saturday to review the new variant concern. The Centre directed the states to take rigorous steps and accelerate the screening of passengers and pandemic appropriate behaviour.
Informing more over the restrictions, Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra said that quarantine has been made mandatory for foreigners and returnees from other countries with testing and genome sequencing.
community surveillance and awareness measures need to be ramped up, he added.
Omicron, the new potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus, has been reported in more European countries after the United Kingdom, just days after being identified in South Africa.
The variant was confirmed by Sacco hospital in Milan, and Italy’s National Health Institute said the man had received two doses of the vaccine.
The omicron variant was confirmed in two travellers who arrived on a flight from South Africa on November 24, Munich-based microbiology centre, the Max von Pettenkofer Institute, said.
