Coronavirus Updates: Maha Govt Clamps New Rules; 14-Day Quarantine, Travel History Proof Must

Dutch health authorities said Tuesday that the new Covid-19 variant was present in the Netherlands a week earlier than previously believed and checks are underway to see how far it has spread. The RIVM National Health and Environment Institute said it “has found the corona variant Omicron in two test samples that had already been taken in the Netherlands… on November 19 and 23”.

The first cases in the Netherlands had been thought to be the 14 Omicron infections on two KLM flights from South Africa that arrived in Amsterdam on Friday, November 26. The two earlier Dutch infections also came before South Africa first reported the new strain on November 24 to the World Health Organization, which has designated Omicron a variant of concern.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Monday said that the state cabinet has expressed concerns about passengers arriving from at-risk countries. “Why should we not ban all flights from at-risk countries? We should request the Central government for this. Cabinet has demanded this. A final decision will be taken in the next few days,” Tope said. A 39-year-old Chandigarh resident who had returned from South Africa a few days ago tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and his sample will now be sent to Delhi for whole genome sequencing. One of his family members and a domestic help have also been found infected with the virus.

In Karnataka, all international passengers who test negative for COVID on arrival in Bengaluru will be put in quarantine for 7 days. They will be tested again after 7 days. 598 such passengers are under surveillance, said Bengaluru Rural District Health Officer Tippeswamy after visiting Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru on Monday.

Even as the World Health Organization flagged risks of the Omicron variant, US President Joe Biden said that this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.  “I’ll put forward a detailed strategy, outlining how we are going to fight Covid this winter, not with shutdowns & lockdowns but more widespread vaccination, boosters, testing & more,” Biden said.

“It will be a few weeks before we know everything we need to know about how strongly the existing vaccines protect against the new variant. But Dr. Fauci and our medical team believe that our vaccines will continue to provide a degree of protection against severe disease,” Biden said in a tweet. In Canada, further two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in Ottawa, bringing the country’s total number of cases to five, according to Ottawa Public Health.

Read all the Latest India News here