India’s Omicron tally rises to 21 with 17 more testing positive for the new variant. top point
Highlight
- India on Sunday reported 17 cases of the Omicron variant
- India’s Omron Tally 21. jumped up
- Now, cases of Omicron have been reported in four states and the national capital.
India on Sunday reported 17 more cases of the omicron version of COVID-19 – nine persons in Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur, seven in Maharashtra’s Pune district and one fully vaccinated person who arrived in Delhi from Tanzania I took the tally to 21. Most of those who tested positive had either recently come from African countries or were in contact with such people.
With this, four states and the national capital have now reported cases of a potentially more infectious form, prompting a fresh worldwide alert. The nine people who tested positive in Jaipur include four members of a family who recently returned from South Africa.
“Genome sequencing has confirmed that nine persons are infected with the Omicron variant,” Rajasthan Health Secretary Vaibhav Galaria said.
The new cases in Maharashtra include a woman who had come from Nigeria with her two daughters, her brother and a man who had returned from Finland in the last week of November. The total number of confirmed omicron cases in Maharashtra now stands at eight.
“The 44-year-old woman, who is a Nigerian citizen of Indian origin, her 18 and 12-year-old daughters had reached Pimpri from Lagos, Nigeria on November 24 to visit her brother,” the state health department said in a statement. Chinchwad area.
The woman, her two daughters, her 45-year-old brother and her two seven-and-a-half-year-old daughters have tested positive for the Omicron variant, according to a report given by the Pune-based national institute. of Virology (NIV).” Thirteen of his contacts were traced and tested.
Read also | Six from family, another in Pune test omicron positive
The country reported the first two cases of the Omicron version of COVID-19 in Karnataka on Thursday – a 66-year-old South African flier and a 46-year-old Bengaluru doctor with no travel history. Both men have been fully vaccinated.
On Saturday, a 72-year-old NRI from Gujarat and a 33-year-old man from Thane in Maharashtra tested positive for the new strain. The marine engineer, who had arrived in Delhi from South Africa on November 23 and then flew to Mumbai, is currently undergoing treatment at a COVID-19 care center in Kalyan city, located about 50 km from the Maharashtra capital.
“His condition is stable and is doing well,” Dr Gauri Rathod, deputy director of health services, Mumbai circle, told PTI.
The first patient to test positive for Omicron in Delhi is a 37-year-old man from Ranchi, who traveled from Tanzania to Doha and from there on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2. He stayed in Johannesburg, South Africa. one week.
The man is “fully vaccinated” and is currently admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital with “mild symptoms”. “He was supposed to take a connecting flight to Ranchi, where he lives with his family. Since he had given his sample at the IGI airport, which came back positive, we admitted him to the LNJP hospital,” the official said.
Officials are trying to trace and isolate 10 people sitting next to the passenger on the flight. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that 17 COVID-19 patients and their six contacts have been admitted to LNJP Hospital so far.
“As per the preliminary report, one of the 12 samples sent for genome sequencing so far has been found to contain the omicron variant,” the medical director said. Suresh Kumar said.
Delhi’s health minister said banning international flights is the most effective way to contain the spread of the Omicron variant, even as he appealed to people to wear masks and get the COVID-19 vaccine. He said there is a 99 percent chance that the mask can protect people from all COVID-19 types, be it alpha, beta, delta or omicron.
Under the new norms, RT-PCR tests are mandatory for passengers coming from “at-risk” countries and will be allowed to leave the airport only after the results are out.
According to the centre, the countries designated as “at risk” are European countries, including the UK, and South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel. Along with this, two percent of the passengers coming by flight from other countries will be randomly tested.
The new version of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from South Africa on 25 November. According to WHO, the first known B.1.1.1.529 infection was from a sample collected on November 9 this year. ,
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the new Omicron coronavirus variant has been confirmed in 23 countries and their number is expected to increase.
India has also added several countries to the list from where travelers will have to follow additional measures upon arrival in the country, including post-arrival testing for the infection.
Meanwhile, the Center has set a target of 100 per cent COVID-19 adult immunization under the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ program by December 31 as India on Sunday achieved 50 per cent of the fully vaccinated adult population. The States/Union Territories with more than 50% adult population include Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh. , Uttarakhand, Tripura.
Read also | IRajasthan: 9 test positive for Omicron in Jaipur; India’s number 21. jumped up to
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