Team News Riveting
Kochi, December 12
Being the worst-hit states during delta variant of COVID-19, Kerala today reported the first case of Omicron.
With the new patient discovered for the new variant of COVID-19. the total cases of the Omicron in India had reached 38.
In a video posted on her Facebook page, Kerala’s Health Minister Veena George said the 39-year-old patient was a Kerala native who recently came from the United Kingdom. The patient, a resident of Ernakulam, had arrived in Kochi with his wife on December 6 via Abu Dhabi on an Etihad flight.
Initially, he and his wife had tested negative for COVID-19, but as on the next day he showed signs of illness, another test was conducted and he was found positive, a release said from the health department said. Thereafter, his sample was sent for genetic testing and Omicron was confirmed, it added.
Of the 149 passengers on the Etihad flight, those in the 26th to the 32nd rows have been included in the high-risk category and they have to undergo COVID tests on Monday.
The minister, in the release, has said that extreme caution should be exercised since Omicron has been reported in the state. She said that the government was working to detect the virus in the early stages, ensure expert treatment for those infected and thereby, prevent the spread of the disease.
Till now, Omicron has been detected in Maharashtra (18), Rajasthan (9), Karnataka (3), Karnataka (3) and Andhra Pradesh (1) and in Union Territories of Delhi (2) and Chandigarh (1).
The Omicron variant was first detected in Southern India at Bengaluru with two people testing positive for it comprising a South African national of Indian origin and a doctor.
