Maharashtra reports first case of Omicron Covid variant; total 4 cases in India

The first case of Omicron was confirmed in Maharashtra on Saturday with a 33-year-old passenger who arrived from Cape Town in South Africa being confirmed for the latest Covid-19 variant.

The passenger arrived in Mumbai on November 24 from Cape Town through Dubai and Delhi.

The infected person is a resident of Kalyan-Dombivli in Thane district, which falls under the larger Mumbai metropolitan region.

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“The person has not taken any Covid-19 vaccine. On November 24, the passenger got a mild fever. However, no other symptoms were observed. This mildly symptomatic patient is being treated at the Covid Care Centre in Kalyan-Dombivali,” Maharashtra’s Public Health Department said.

So far, 12 of the passenger’s high-risk contacts and 23 of the low-risk contacts have been traced and all have been tested negative for Covid-19.

Additionally, 25 of the co-passengers from the Delhi-Mumbai flight have also been tested negative.

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More contacts are currently being traced.

Meanwhile, results of the genomic sequencing of a 60-year-old male passenger’s sample who had arrived from Zambia has been obtained from the National Institute of Virology and Omicron has not been detected in the sample.

Instead, a sub-lineage of the Delta variant has been detected in the sample.

Also Read | Gujarat reports first case of Omicron Covid-19 variant

Until Monday morning, 3,839 passengers arriving from at-risk countries for Omicron at Mumbai airport had been tested with RT-PCR and 344 out of 17,107 passengers arriving from other countries had been tested.

Since 1st December 2021, 8 passengers have been tested positive for Covid-19 and their samples have been sent for genomic sequencing. Additionally, field surveillance of all international passengers who have arrived since 1 November is underway.