Omicron scare: 10 South African nationals who recently arrived in B’luru untraceable, say sources 

Team Udayavani, Dec 3, 2021, 3:12 PM IST

Despite the intensified surveillance mechanisms undertaken by the government following detection of the Omicron variant, 10 South African nationals who arrived in Bengaluru between November 12 and 22 have reportedly gone untraceable.

Earlier yesterday, the Union Health Ministry reported that the country’s first two cases of Omicron infection were found in Bengaluru.

As per sources, stringent measures were initiated at the airport from November 22 onwards and these ten persons had arrived in Bengaluru before that. The Health department wants to get these persons tested, but they have gone missing, sources said.

When asked about this, Gaurav Gupta, the Chief Commissioner, stated that he doesn’t have any direct information regarding the matter. “I can say that, contact tracing is a continuous process and if they are not found, there are standard protocols to deal with the situation. We are prepared to tackle any situation.”

Meanwhile the state government has already begun tracing the primary and secondary contacts of the two infected persons. Notably, one of them had no travel history.