Surveillance has been intensified at international airports in Tamil Nadu to screen all incoming travellers for various viruses, including Omicron, coronavirus variant. A senior State government official has been designated to monitor at each international airport, said State Health Minister M Subramaniam.

The officials will ensure strict adherence to guidelines issued by the Centre on Omicron and other guidelines issued by the Union health department, he told newspersons after inspecting the Genomic sequencing lab and RT-PCR Lab at the Department of Public Health complex in the city along with Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan.

Subramaniam said on Thursday, he would be inspecting the international airports of Madurai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore to ensure that all the guidelines are being followed.

The Rs. 2.5 crore genomic lab was inaugurated recently. The minister said that in the past, the samples were either sent to such labs in Hyderabad or Bengaluru. It used to take many days to get the results.

However, the lab in Chennai will ensure that the results are available in a few hours.