The Tamil Nadu health department has issued an alert to all the District Medical Officers (DMOs) against the reported Omicron variant BF.7 and the increase in the number of Covid positive cases in several countries.
The State Public Health Department has already sent a letter to the Union Health Ministry for mandatorily testing international passengers arriving from China and Hong Kong.
The director of the State Public Health Department, Dr. Selvavinayagam in a letter addressed to the Union Health ministry stated that the checking of passengers arriving from China and Hong Kong was mandatory as there is a surge of Covid-19 in those countries.
The state Public health secretary in the letter also mentioned about the 480 deaths reported in China as found in public domains and the 1.48 lakh cases of Covid-19 reported in that country in the past week.
The Union government had lifted the random testing of 2 per cent of international passengers arriving at Indian airports as the Covid-19 cases have come down drastically.