Amid Omicron threats, a 69-year-old Nigeria returnee tested positive for COVID-19 in West Bengal, state official informed on Sunday. The sample was collected for genome sequencing to ascertain whether he contracted the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.
“The patient is undergoing treatment at a private hospital. His sample has been collected by the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and will be sent for genome sequencing on Monday,” the official said.
“The man had returned from Nigeria on December 13. He had symptoms of COVID-19. His sample was tested the next day and he was admitted to a private hospital in south Kolkata. His wife, who came along with him, had tested negative,” he said.
His driver and another person came in contact with him, and their samples will be tested on Sunday. “Contact tracing exercise is underway at this moment,” the official said.
Earlier this week, West Bengal reported its first Omicron case after a seven-year-old boy, who returned from Abu Dhabi via Hyderabad, tested positive for it. The boy and his family members, who were admitted in a hospital in Malda district, were discharged yesterday after the tested negetive.
Two more persons – one woman from the UK and another from Bangladesh, were kept in institutional quarantine after they were found infected with COVID-19. They had tested negative for the new Omicron strain.
With 30 new Omicron cases being logged on Saturday, the overall tally for the new variant reached 143 in India. Omicron cases today were reported from Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. This is the highest single-day rise for the Omicron variant in the country. On Friday, as many as 24 cases were reported.
(With inputs from agencies)
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