Noida has received a list of 6,960 international travelers who returned to the district in the last one month. Of them, 1,564 are from at-risk countries. But till now Noida has been able to test only 400 of them.
Officials said the district was testing only those who had returned from “at-risk” countries. As for the other passengers, officials said their health was being monitored regularly and only those with symptoms were being screened. So far, five persons – from three UK and two from Singapore – have tested positive in the city. There has been no confirmed case of Omicron, unlike Ghaziabad, where an elderly couple was found to be infected with the new variant.
Officials in Noida said that one of the reasons for the low testing rate in the city was reluctance on the part of some passengers to get themselves tested after undergoing the procedure at the airport.
Unlike Noida, almost all other districts in the state are testing all international travelers – irrespective of the country they returned from. Ghaziabad, for example, has tested 928 out of 4,766 people whose names have been provided by the government till Saturday. Officials said more than 1,350 of them were from at-risk countries.
So far, three passengers – one each from Dubai, Russia and Kenya – have tested positive in Ghaziabad – with none of these countries being “at risk”. The doctor himself, who returned from Russia, has even taken a booster dose in that country. In addition, the couple who were infected with the Omicron variant had returned from Mumbai via Jaipur. He has since tested negative.
Ghaziabad District Surveillance Officer RK Gupta said that all those coming from abroad were being screened anyway at the airport and then at the local level after seven days. Testing is also being done at Hindon Terminal.
According to official data, six districts of Meerut division – Bulandshahr, Baghpat and Hapur – apart from Noida, Ghaziabad and Meerut – have received over 13,300 international passengers’ lists from DGCA till Saturday. Of them, only 2,510 have been tested so far.
While Meerut has tested 918 out of 1,502 passengers, Bulandshahr has tested 254 samples out of 262 people. Baghpat has tested all its 22 passengers.
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