380 Travellers Arrived In Odisha From Foreign Countries Since Omicron Was Detected; Govt Yet To Trace Them

Photograph: Suprakash Mishra.

Bhubaneswar: Nearly 380 people have arrived in Odisha from foreign countries after COVID-19’s new strain, Omicron, was detected.

But the state Health and Family Welfare Department is yet to collect information about who these travellers are, their travel history and if any of them flew in from ‘at risk’ countries.

Two foreigners — one from Togo, the other from Sri Lanka who landed on Tuesday — tested negative. “From the Centre, we received a list of 380 people who arrived in the state in the last few days. The list does not, however, have any information about the countries they travelled from and their local addresses,” said a senior health official, a local media report reported.

The Odisha government has moved the Union Health Ministry seeking access to Air Suvidha portal to get details of these travellers. “The only possibility is to get the travel history of the passengers from his/her self-declaration form available in the portal,” the official added.

Last year, several travellers who arrived here from foreign countries could not be traced for days. They had switched off their phones to avoid testing and officials could not contact them.