4 health dept officials to monitor screening at international airports in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has intensified precautionary measures at all four international airports in the state in the wake of the detection of the new Covid-19 virus variant ‘Omicron’ in South Africa and has appointed four health department officials to personally monitor the situation, State Minister Ma Subramanian said in Chennai on Saturday.

These officials would be stationed in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchirappalli airports, the Minister for Medical and Family Welfare said in Chennai.

“The new virus variant Omicron has been detected in five countries — South Africa, Botswana, Israel, Belgium, Hong Kong (China). Several countries are taking preventive measures to protect themselves from this new age virus. We too have stepped up preventive measures in a full-fledged manner at international airports (of the State)”, he told reporters.