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Telangana high court directs state to impose curbs on gatherings amid concernsover new variant
State health minister T Harish Rao told reporters that the government would follow all the directions given by the court
Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Thursday expressed serious concerns over the surge in cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the state and asked the government to strictly impose restrictions on Christmas, New Year and Sankranti festival celebrations.
There were, however, no fresh cases of Omicron variant in the state on Thursday, even as genome sequencing reports of 10 more Covid-19 patients are still awaited, health officials said. The state till Thursday evening has reported 38 cases of Omicron variant.
A division bench of the chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice N Tukaramji directed the state government to strictly comply with the latest directives issued by the Union government to prevent the spread of Omicron variant of coronavirus.
It also directed the state government to take up all steps for the control and management of large public gatherings during the ensuing festival season. “The mass gathering of people without wearing masks and following minimum precautions is a matter of concern,” it said.
State health minister T Harish Rao told reporters that the government would follow all the directions given by the court.
Meanwhile, a village in Rajanna Siricilla district on Thursday went into a self-imposed lockdown for 10 days following the surfacing of an Omicron variant case on Wednesday.
A 28-year-old man, who returned from Dubai to his native village of Gudem in Mustabad block on December 16, tested positive for the virus on December 20. His wife and mother also tested positive for Covid-19 a day later.
The throat swab samples of the man and his family members were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology for genome sequencing. On Wednesday, it was revealed that the Gulf-returnee was positive for Omicron. He was immediately shifted to Hyderabad for quarantine. The results of the other two, who were home quarantined, are still awaited.
The villagers held an emergency meeting on Thursday morning and resolved that the entire village should observe lockdown. “It is very unfortunate, but we have no other alternative. Except for a couple of hours in the morning hours for essential services, the entire village would be shut down for 10 days. We have asked the people not to come out of their houses except for emergency needs,” Gudem village upa-sarpanch S Srinivasa Rao told HT.
He said the authorities had collected 64 samples of the primary contacts of the 28-year-old man and sent them for tests. “All of them were sent to home quarantine. We have also informed our decision to higher officials,” Rao said.
According to him, the man had also attended a wedding function at the adjacent Narayanapur village of Yellareddypet mandal on Sunday. “The authorities have also collected samples of 53 persons who came in contact with him at the function. They have also been sent for testing,” he added.
