After the fast-spreading of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the various parts of the world, a new terror has been emerged in the people of the country. So far, two positive cases of Omicron* variant have been detected in Karnataka.
To reduce the spreading of this variant in different parts of the country, the Health Ministry of the country has been advising the states and union territories to strictly check upon the international passengers who have been coming from ‘at risk’ countries.
International passengers coming from ‘at risk’ countries are advised to go for RT-PCR* test. Only after the reports of their tests are available, they are allowed to step out from the airport. This situation created a lot of chaos in Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Wednesday, December 1. Long queues were witnessed at the airport due to the guidelines regarding the mandatory RT-PCR test of the international passengers at the airport passed down by Union Health Ministry.
Only four doctors and 25 staffers were deployed at the airport according to the reports. Moreover, there was only one testing counter located for screening the passengers. A lot of passengers showed their discomforts during the testing through various social media handles.
Among those passengers, Raja Andukondan was also the one who faced issues while testing. He raised his complaints through his Twitter handle.
He stated, “@BLRAirport As one of the passengers on the very first flight which landed after 00:00hrs, it was horrible. Clearly the lab Auriga Research was not at all prepared. Who can I contact for a refund of my cost for the Rapid PCR test? Results were promised in 1 hr but took 3+ hrs”.
According to the current guidelines, passengers coming from ‘at risk’ countries have to go through post-arrival testing and will be isolated in case the reports turn out to be positive.
Due to the fast-spreading of Omicron variant of COVID-19, all the residents of India are advised to ensure their safety and not to take it lightly in any case. It is to be hoped that all the people will be able to overcome this crisis very soon with their own vigilance.
*Omicron variant –
It is a new variant of COVID-19 that has been kicked-off in South Africa. A sudden surge of positive cases broke out among the university students. At first, scientists mistook this omicron variant in the students as delta variant. But after the research, the omicron variant was found out with a lot of mutations which stirred up a chaos among the scientists. On 24 November, this variant was reported to World Health Organisation. According to WHO, this variant poses a ‘very high risk’. Following different reports, it is to be said that this variant could be the most contagious one to be ever known in the history.
*RT-PCR test-
Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is the test where an enzyme called reverse transcriptase used to change the piece of RNA into a same matching piece of DNA. This method is used to detect the specific genetic material in any pathogen. It is one of the widely used methods to detect the COVID-19 virus in a diseased body.
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