omicron variant ludhiana as omicron has reached about 13 countries the local health department has asked the ground staff to remain vigilant and keep a watch on international travellers coming to the district the district health authorities said the union health ministry has revised the existing guidelines which they have not received yet but these are usually the same for all mutants civil surgeon dr sp singh said he held a meeting with senior medical officers smos of both urban and rural centres and issued instructions to ramp up testing and keep a watch on international travellers though the government has asked them to board flights with a negative rtpcr report the officials said the government has deputed nodal officers for international travellers and special focus would be on monitoring the passengers coming from atrisk countries including the united kingdom south africa brazil bangladesh china mauritius new zealand botswana zimbabwe singapore hong kong and israel though we are yet to get the revised guidelines we have learnt that the passengers coming from these countries will have to undergo rtpcr on arrival and if they test negative they will have to stay under home quarantine for seven days after that they will have to undergo retest and if tested negative they will have to selfmonitor themselves for the next seven days said a health department officialthe officials said samples of the suspected patients would be sent for genome sampling experts suggest strict adherence to norms unlike last time the authorities need to ensure that the guidelines are strictly enforced the international travellers should be monitored but there is no need to panic said ludhiana ima president dr saroj aggarwalas per the whos instructions for southeast asia there is too much uncertainty about it as there have been 30 mutations transmissibility of omicron is higher and vaccination may have no impact on it who has said it can be more severe here so we need more surveillance and genome sequencing people have to be very careful and follow covid appropriate behaviour including wearing of masks besides the highrisk patients should be vaccinated said dr anurag chaudhary of community medicine department dmch