India and Sri Lanka’s health officials have announced the positive identification of the new Omicron Coronavirus variant.
According to Indian health officials, the two patients who were identified positive for the Omicron variant showed mild symptoms.
All their primary and secondary contacts have been traced and are currently being tested.
Since last Wednesday, the Indian government issued travel restrictions for international passengers arriving from "at-risk" countries which include the UK, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, and Israel.
In Sri Lanka, Omicron was identified from a person from an African nation who is now under quarantine along with his family.
The Sri Lankan government too issued travel restrictions last week to passengers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini who are required to undergo mandatory quarantine.
Maldives enjoys a heavy flow of passenger traffic from both these countries as more than 50 weekly flights are operated to Velana International Airport.
On 28th November, Maldives issued travel restrictions to travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Eswatini until further notice.
This includes travelers who have been to any of these countries in the last 14 days and travelers who have been in transit in any of these countries for more than 12 hours.
This restriction excludes Maldivian citizens and expatriates however upon entry there’ll be required to undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days and obtain a COVID-19 negative PCR
test results before they are released from quarantine.
Omicron cases have been detected in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Botswana, Hong Kong, Israel, etc.