The sources with the King's Institute, Guindy, where two international passengers who tested positive are being treated, say that the patients are stable and there are mild symptoms. "The genomic sequencing is awaited, but we are following the same standard treatment protocol as other Covid-19 cases. The patients are recovering well and there is no significant change in their health status," an official with the hospital said.

While special wards have been made ready at King's Institute, Guindy, Tamil Nadu Multisuper Speciality Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital to admit and treat international passengers testing positive for COVID-19, the isolation wards have also been set-up at other district headquartered hospitals to provide adequate beds and healthcare services.

With about 200 beds for the international passengers testing positive for COVID-19 have been made ready recently, the State already has about 40,000 oxygen beds for Covid-19 patients, 27,000 non-oxygen beds and about 8,700 ICU beds available.

"We have adequate infrastructure and facilities available and there has been no significant rise in the cases. As the treatment protocol for those testing positive remains the same and there are no Omicron cases reported in Tamil Nadu yet. There is unverified information on social media that should not be believed on Omicon," said Dr T S Selvavinayagam, director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.