Country’s first Omicron cases detected

With the first-ever cases of the Omicron variant being detected in India with two people testing positive for it in Karnataka, the state authorities have gone into a huddle to chalk out the course of action to deal with the emerging situation. The state capital’s civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, has called an emergency meeting at the COVID war room. According to Health Department sources, one of the infected people has already recovered, while the other is in under hotel quarantine in Bengaluru.

The BBMP has tracked primary contacts of the two infected persons. While 12 primary contacts of the first infected person tested negative, 212 primary contacts of second infected have been quarantined and their results are awaited. All are asymptomatic. According to officials, the first infected person arrived from South Africa on November 1 and the second one between November 15 and 20. The first infected person has completed quarantine and is healthy and the second one is also asymptomatic and all right, sources said.

Four people travelling from ‘at risk’ countries have tested positive in the national capital, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said here on Thursday. Apart from them, four other close contacts of the infected have been identified. Their samples have been sent for re-monitoring to the genome sequencing lab, he said.