Maharashtra man detected with Omicron variant India's fourth case

(MENAFN- NewsBytes)

An unvaccinated male passenger who had returned from South Africa's Cape Town has been detected with the coronavirus variant called Omicron in Maharashtra. The 33-year-old man is a resident of Maharashtra 's Dombivli. He arrived in Mumbai on November 24 from Cape Town via Dubai and Delhi. The patient has mild symptoms and is being treated at the COVID-19 Care Centre in Kalyan-Dombivli.

This is the fourth Omicron case detected in India and the first case in Maharashtra. The central and state governments are stepping up precautionary measures as the new variant is feared to be more transmissible. The previous three cases were detected in Karnataka (two) and Gujarat (one). A 72-year-old Non-Resident Indian (NRI) tested positive for the Omicron variant in Gujarat Saturday.

Since the 33-year-old was detected with the Omicron variant, 12 high-risk contacts and 23 low-risk contacts have been traced. Reportedly, all of them have tested negative for COVID-19. Twenty-five co-passengers in the Delhi-Mumbai flight have also been tested and found negative for COVID-19 , The Indian Express reported. More contacts of the patient are being traced.

Notably, the Maharashtra patient is a marine engineer by profession and was unvaccinated. 'Due to the odd nature of his job, he couldn't get vaccinated while on the ship,' an official told PTI. The patient had also left India in April when vaccinations were available for healthcare and frontline workers, the official said.

In Mumbai airport, 3,839 passengers arriving from 'at-risk' countries were tested with RT-PCR till Saturday morning. As many as 344 out of 17,107 passengers arriving from other countries were also randomly tested. The samples of eight passengers who tested COVID-19-positive since December 1 have been sent for genome sequencing. Field surveillance has been ongoing for international passengers arriving in the state since November 1.

On Saturday, a 72-year-old Non-Resident Indian (NRI) returning from Zimbabwe was detected with Omicron in Gujarat 's Jamnagar. He reportedly landed in Jamnagar last week, and he was tested positive for COVID-19 during regular screening at the airport. The presence of Omicron was confirmed after genome sequencing. The fully-vaccinated Zimbabwe citizen reportedly had mild symptoms such as cough, cold, and sore throat.

The World Health Organization said that the new variant of coronavirus Omicron (B.1.1.529) had been detected in 38 countries, but there are no reports of deaths associated with it. Earlier, the world body termed Omicron a variant of concern (VOC). Omicron is said to be the most heavily mutated strain of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. However, studies on its transmissibility and severity are still ongoing.

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