After a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is not listed by the Centre as a high-risk country, turned positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the Kerala Health Department Thursday decided to strictly implement self-observation for all international passengers arriving in the state.

Kerala on Wednesday had reported four more Omicron cases, one of them the traveler from Congo, taking the total cases in the state to five.

After a review meeting, Health Minister Veena George said more samples of passengers who turn positive for Covid-19 would be sent for genome sequencing.

Along with the samples of positive cases from high-risk countries, the samples of passengers from other countries would also be sent for genome sequencing if they are found to be positive for Covid-19 during random examination.

The minister said that since December 1, 1.47 lakh passengers have arrived at Kerala’s four international airports. Of these, 8,920 persons were subject to testing at the airports and 15 were found positive for Covid-19. All their samples have been sent for genome sequencing.