Three high-risk contacts of the woman had tested negative, Dr Wavare said, adding that she has been kept in institutional quarantine. Maharashtra on Monday reported two more patients infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV2 — both with travel history to Dubai — taking the state’s tally of those affected with the new strain to 20. Gujarat, meanwhile, reported its fourth Omicron case, a 42-year old man who returned from South Africa.
All three are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, officials said.
Among the new cases in Maharashtra is a 39-year-old woman who returned to Pune from Dubai, according to a report released by the National Institute of Virology. The other is a 33-year-old man who returned from Dubai and tested positive for the variant in Latur.
The woman arrived in Pune from Dubai via Mumbai on December 1. She had tested negative for Covid then, according to Dr Sanjeev Wavare, assistant medical officer, Pune Municipal Corporation. She tested positive for Covid on December 9 and her sample was sent for genomic sequencing. The sample tested positive for Omicron variant.
Three high-risk contacts of the woman had tested negative, Dr Wavare said, adding that she has been kept in institutional quarantine.
According to Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, the 20 Omicron cases in Maharashtra include five cases from Mumbai, 10 from Pimpri Chinchwad, Kalyan Dombivali 1, Pune Municipal Corporation 2, Nagpur 1 and Latur 1. Of these, nine cases have been discharged after negative RT-PCR test.
RT-PCR tests have been done for 14,777 passengers who arrived after international travel at Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune airports since December 1. Additionally, field surveillance of all international passengers who have arrived since November 1 is under way. Through airport and field surveillance, 107 samples have been sent for genomic sequencing. Results of 20 are awaited.
As on Monday, there were 6,507 active Covid cases in the state. Currently 74,190 people are in home quarantine and 887 people in institutional quarantine.
The Omicron case reported from Gujarat is a 42-year old man who returned from South Africa earlier this month.
According to a Surat municipal corporation health official, the fully vaccinated diamond trader had tested negative for Covid on arrival in Surat. He was tested again on the eighth day after his arrival as per protocol, and his RT-PCR test returned positive, following which his sample was sent for genome sequencing.
He had returned from South Africa via Abu Dhabi and New Delhi.
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