Omicron scare: Hunt on for Botswana woman who visited MP
Bhopal, Nov 29: In the wake of concerns over the potentially more contagious new 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus detected in some countries, Madhya Pradesh health authorities have launched a search for a woman from Bostwana who, as per government records, visited Jabalpur on November 18, an official said on Monday.
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"An official from the Bostwana Embassy told us over phone that she is in isolation at a military organisation in Jabalpur. We have asked him to share her mobile phone number and her local contact," Jabalpur Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Ratnesh Kurariya told PTI.
Efforts
were
on
to
trace
the
woman,
named
Khuno
Oremeet
Selyn
as
per
the
record,
according
to
the
Union
government's
health
surveillance
guidelines
(to
check
the
spread
of
COVID-19),
he
said.
"The
woman
came
to
Jabalpur
from
Delhi,
as
per
the
record
shared
with
us
by
the
central
government," he
said.
The location of her mobile number mentioned in Jabalpur's Dumna airport record was traced to Delhi. The police investigation suggests that the phone has not been moved out of Delhi since last month, the official said. "The CCTV footage of the Jabalpur airport is being examined to find the woman," he said.
Information was also being gathered from hotels in Jabalpur and neighboring districts, he said.
Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa, where Omicron has been detected. The WHO last week described Omicron as a "variant of concern" and its detection has caused fear around the globe that it could resist vaccines and prolong the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the surveillance process, the Union government was regularly providing the list of visitors coming to Jabalpur from abroad, Dr Kurariya said.
Last month, 164 people from the United Kingdom visited Jabalpur and they were contacted and asked about their health, he said.
Jabalpur reported the first coronavirus case in the state on March 30 last year, when three people who returned from Dubai and Germany tested positive for the infection.