Amid fear of a possible threat that the new COVID-19 variant Omicron could pose, residents of Srinagar Monday urged the authorities to rigorously test and screen arriving travelers, especially foreigners.
The residents said that the travelers from South Africa and other countries, who were “at-risk”, needed to be screened and put under necessary quarantine in case of symptoms.
A group of residents of Dalgate said that they saw few tourists arriving in vehicles roaming freely without being screened on their arrival.
“We inquired from them if they had been screened and they informed us that they had not been,” the residents of Dalgate said.
Most travelers including tourists directly arrive in Srinagar and visit hotels, restaurants, and public places like gardens and health resorts.
“Hundreds of people can contract the virus in case a single tourist or traveler is infected. Then it will be difficult for the authorities to go for contact tracing and within no time we will have a new variant in Kashmir,” said Aqib Bhat, a resident of Khanyar.
