The fear of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is spreading fast across several countries, has led to the cancellation of New Year travel plans of several Jharkhand residents and also caused a change in the itinerary of people planning to visit foreign shores for work.

Many Jharkhand residents, who had plans of spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve in happening travel destinations like Goa and Pondicherry, have kept their plan on hold, while some residents who made bookings in resorts and homestays in the mountains of Darjeeling and Sikkim are left second guessing their decision.

“We made bookings at Auroville in Pondicherry for the New Years, but we had to cancel our bookings owing to the new variant of coronavirus. Obviously, there is a fear of infection, but the changes in travel protocol for interstate travellers may also cause unnecessary harassment,” said Seema Chaudhary, a Kanke Road resident who was set to leave for Chennai on December 23 along with her husband and two children. Travel agencies, which were usually flooded with inquiries during this time of the year, have also witnessed a slump in their business. While existing bookings have either been cancelled or postponed, fresh bookings have been hard to come by.

Prasenjit Saha, co-owner of Travelogue Tours and Travels, a Siliguri-based travel company that has several clients in Ranchi, said at least three tour packages to from Ranchi to Darjeeling were cancelled in the past 48 hours.

“We are still recovering from the jolts of the first and the second wave of the pandemic. And now, this new variant has led to changes in interstate travel protocols and apprehension among our clients,” he said.

Meanwhile, some residents planning to visit foreign shores for work have also been forced to cancel their plans in the wake of the frequently changing travel protocols for international travellers in different countries.

“I had to return to Australia and rejoin the office there by January first week, but I have kept my travel plans on hold for now,” said Abhishek Gangdeb, a Ranchi resident who works for an IT firm in Melbourne.

Some Ranchi residents who were planning to return to work in the United States are worried about the skyrocketing price of air tickets from India to US countries. Mohit Kumar, who had to catch a flight to Seattle, said that the air fares have almost doubled, forcing him to rethink his travel plans.