Team News Riveting
Bengaluru, December 2
Omicron, the variant of concern, has finally entered India as the two people have tested positive for the virus in Karnataka.
Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal told the media on Thursday that infected persons have been identified as a 48-year-old male and a 66-year-old male. The two patients have mild symptoms and all contacts of both patients have been traced and are being tested further.
Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar had earlier indicated that the sample of one of the two South African nationals who came to Bengaluru recently was “different from the Delta variant.” “His report is a bit different. It appears different from the delta variant. We will discuss with the ICMR officials and will let people know…,” the minister had said.
The Union Health Ministry today confirmed it and said the two persons have been infected by Omicron. The new potentially more contagious B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 24, and has been designated as a “Variant of Concern” by the global body, which named it Omicron. A variant of concern is the WHO’s top category of worrying coronavirus variants.
There is no need to panic over the detection of the Omicron variant, the Health Ministry has said. “There is no need to panic about Omicron, but awareness is absolutely essential. It is important to get fully vaccinated, people should get both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. People should follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. Mass gatherings should be avoided,” ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargav said.
Earlier on Thursday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a meeting with airport and port health officers as well as other authorities over screening and surveillance at all points of entries amid concerns over the new coronavirus variant. The Health Ministry has been advising states and Union territories to keep a strict vigil and undertake surveillance of international passengers coming to the country through various airports. Testing of samples of international travellers coming from ‘at risk’ countries on the first day and of specified category of passengers on the eighth day needs to be scrupulously done, it had stressed.
International passengers from at-risk countries are being advised to wait at airports till the report of the RT-PCR test is available. States and UTs have been asked to send all positive samples for genome sequencing to INSACOG labs (mapped with states) promptly and that the states should undertake contact tracing of positive individuals and follow up for 14 days.
