Belagavi : Amid rapid rise in highly infectious variant Omicron, the Indian Railways on Friday said that only passengers with negative RT-PCR certificate will be allowed to board the trains from Goa to Karnataka.

Only passengers with negative RT-PCR certificate not older than 72 hrs prior to boarding, allowed to board the trains from Goa for Karnataka, irrespective of vaccination status,” the South Western Railway said.

It also said that it is mandatory for students and the public who are regular travellers from Goa to Karnataka for various reasons, to undergo RT-PCR once in 15 days and possess such negative report.

Omicron has now spread in 27 states including Goa and Karnataka.

The covid pandemic has exploded in the state on Friday with 8449 new infected. Bengaluru alone has got 6812 infected. With the today’s addition, the rate of positivity has raised to 4.15%.

On Thursday, Karnataka reported 107 new cases of the new variant taking the total count to 333 in the state. “107 new Omicron cases have been confirmed in Karnataka on Jan 6th taking the overall tally to 333,” Health minister Dr K Sudhakar tweeted.

The Health officials said the infected must have been isolated. It is not known whether the infected were symptomatic or asymptomatic.