Four tertiary contacts of India’s second Omicron patient test positive

The BBMP also wants to test the children, and the teaching and non-teaching staff at the school of the anaesthetist’s older child who tested positive

Four tertiary contacts of a 47-year-old anaesthetist, who became India’s second Omicron patient last week, have tested positive for Covid-19. They include two primary contacts of his third primary contact and two primary contacts of his fourth primary contact. In all, the anaesthetist had 13 primary contacts.

The BBMP also wants to test the children, and the teaching and non-teaching staff at the school of the anaesthetist’s older child, 13, who tested positive in an RT-PCR test on Saturday. The BBMP is yet to take her sample and send it for genomic sequencing though. The sample collection will likely happen on Wednesday, hospital authorities said.

However, the parents — the anaesthetist and his ophthalmologist wife — have not revealed the name of the school of their older daughter, said Palike officials.

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“Parents are saying their daughter did not go to school in the past 15 days. Before that, her father wasn’t positive. Since the parents are both doctors and the number of Covid cases in the city was gradually rising, they did not send their children to school. If they don’t give us history, what can we do? They’re not giving us the name of their daughter’s school since they say they were at home for the past few days,” BBMP Chief Health Officer Dr A S Balasundar said.

The BBMP health commissioner and the chief commissioner have asked for leaving the matter as the girl has not been to school since November 15, he added.

The anaesthetist’s 41-year-old wife, who is an ophthalmologist at a city government hospital, has been on leave since November 21, the day her husband fell ill. Her last day in the operation theatre was November 15, a staff member said.

“So far no patients, no postgraduates or anyone in her contact (more than 15 of them) before November 20 are positive. She became positive after the seventh day of her husband’s illness. The 15 we have tested include three nursing staff, the rest are all doctors,” the staffer said.

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The ophthalmologist still has symptoms of Covid. Her genomic sequencing results are awaited.

Three of the contacts of the anaesthetist — an anaesthetist, a vascular surgeon and a cardiothoracic surgeon — tested negative for the second time on Tuesday but the BBMP has asked the hospital to not discharge them yet as their genomic sequencing results are awaited.

Chain of infection

Four Covid-positive primary contacts (PCs) of the anaesthetist have, in turn, generated several PCs and seconday contacts (SCs). Here’s the lowdown:

PC 1 has 13 PCs and 20 SCs

PC 2 has three PCs and
77 SCs

PC 3 has four PCs out of whom two have tested positive

PC 3 has 50 SCs

PC 4 has three PCs out of whom two have tested positive

PC 4 has 50 SCs

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