A Zimbabwe-based NRI man, his wife and brother-in-law, who were found infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Jamnagar city of Gujarat earlier this month, have now tested negative for the infection and were given discharge from a hospital here, officials said on Friday. They were the first three patients of Omicron variant in Gujarat, which later reported two more such cases – one in Surat and another in Mehsana.
“All the three Omicron patients have recovered from the infection. Their latest COVID-19 tests gave negative results, following which the trio was given discharge from the hospital. The Omicron ward is now empty,” said Dr Saugata Chatterjee, nodal officer for COVID-19 at the government-run G G Hospital in Jamnagar city.
On December 4, genome sequencing had established that the 72-year-old NRI man, who arrived here from Zimbabwe, one of the ‘at-risk’ countries, had contracted the Omicron variant of COVID-19. It was the first case of the new strain in Gujarat.
The elderly man had taken both the doses of a Chinese vaccine in Zimbabwe. When his RT-PCR test came positive, authorities kept him in an isolation ward and sent his samples for genome sequencing.
Two days later, his wife, who had come with him from Zimbabwe, and his brother-in-law, who lives in Jamnagar, had also tested positive for coronavirus. On December 10, genome sequencing had established that they were also infected with the Omicron variant. Now, Gujarat has two active cases of the new strain – a 42-year-old businessman undergoing treatment in Surat and a 41-year-old woman health worker admitted to GMERS hospital in Vadnagar, Mehsana district.
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