Telangana govt directed to impose restrictions to prevent Omicron spread amid Christmas, New Year gatherings

File Photo (Reuters)

New Delhi: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday (December 23, 2021) directed the Telangana government to impose restrictions to prevent public gatherings on the occasions of Christmas and New Year.

The order has come in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Telangana, notably, is among the three worst Omicron-hit states in India after Maharashtra and Delhi.

The state reported 14 new Omicron cases on Wednesday and has so far recorded a total of 38 infections of the new coronavirus variant.

According to the state health department, as many as 259 passengers were screened at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday, of which, four cases were tested RTPCR positive. All four samples of the passengers travelling from "At risk" countries were sent for Genome Sequencing out of which two were tested positive for the Omicron variant.

The results of the 4 samples are awaited.

12 samples were also tested positive for the variant from a random sampling basis from other than "At risk" countries.