Hyderabad, Dec 3 (IANS): Twelve more air passengers who arrived in Hyderabad from 'at risk' countries have tested positive for Covid-19 and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing, health officials said on Friday.

With this, the number of passengers testing positive after their arrival in Hyderabad has gone up to 13.

According to the Director of Public Health, G. Srinivasa Rao, out of the 219 passengers who arrived here on Friday, nine tested positive. He, however, did not disclose the details of the countries they came from.

Earlier, a 35-year-old woman, who arrived here from the UK on December 1, had tested positive. Three more had tested positive the next day.

All the 13 persons have been isolated at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) and their samples have been sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for whole genome sequencing to find out if they have been infected by Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19.

The official said that the genome sequence reports are yet to be received.

So far, 909 passengers arrived in Hyderabad from 'at risk' countries since December 1. They were all screened at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.

Those who tested negative have to be under home quarantine for seven days. They will be re-tested on the eighth day and even if found negative, they will have to further self-monitor themselves for the next seven days.

Meanwhile, the state reported 198 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours ending 5.30 p.m. on Friday. Two deaths were also reported during the period.