West Bengal reports first Omicron case as 7-year-old tests positive

He is undergoing treatment at a local hospital in Murshidabad

'Variant of Concern' Omicron has reached West Bengal as a seven-year-old child tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. He traveled to Kolkata from Hyderabad on December 11 where he arrived from Abu Dhabi.

On arrival in Hyderabad, the child was found positive and his sample was sent for genome sequencing. “Today morning it was found positive for the Omicron variant, and authorities from Hyderabad informed us this morning,” confirmed a nodal health official in West Bengal.

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The child was traced to Kaliachak in Malda district and was subsequently admitted at Malda Medical College, along with his father and sister. As per official information, the child is now “stable”. “The child and his sister both tested negative on December 12 from a private lab at Malda,” the official added.

Health officials did contact tracing on Wednesday and samples have been collected from the child, his sister, parents and grandmother. If their samples are found positive, the same will be sent for genome sequencing. Other members of the family have been advised to maintain home isolation.

“Our state team is working on the contact tracing for the child for the last three days and taking all measures to identify the passengers in the flight and also throughout his travel route. All necessary steps are being taken for contentment and to stop the spread of this infection,” the official added.

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