A 34-year-old man who returned from Ireland via Mumbai airport has become the first case of Omicron variant in Andhra Pradesh. With this addition, the number of Covid-19 positive cases of Omicron strain went up to 37 in the country.
According to the state health department, the person was tested upon his arrival at the Mumbai airport and was found to be negative for Covid-19 in an RT-PCR test.
“So, he was allowed to travel and came to Visakhapatnam on 27 November. But an RT-PCR retest conducted at Vizianagaram showed him as positive for Covid-19. His samples were then sent to the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. Genome sequencing declared him as infected by the Omicron variant,” said Dr G Hymavathi, director, public health, Andhra Pradesh.
“However, he does not have any symptoms. He was tested again on Friday and the result was negative. There are no other Omicron cases in the state,” the top health official said.
In the past few days, i.e., the time the Omicron variant started worrying the AP health machinery, a total of 15 foreign travellers were found to be Covid-19 RT-PCR positive. All the samples were sent to CCMB for whole-genome sequencing to identify the strain.
“Reports were received in 10 cases and only one of them was identified as Omicron. Public is advised not to be worried. They should not believe in any rumours but continue to take precautions and follow social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands regularly,” Dr Hymavathi said.
The Medical and Health officer of Srikakulam district had to issue clarifications last week, after social media posts claimed that the returnees from Brazil and South Africa were tested positive with the Omicron variant.
As of Sunday, AP has 1,912 active Covid-19 cases.
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Published 12 December 2021, 12:43 IST