Bhubaneswar: Yet another person has tested Omicron positive in the State. So far nine cases of the new variant have been reported in the State.
Speaking to reporters here today, State Director of Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra said, “a 31-year old man returned from Dubai has tested Omicron variant of corona virus. He is having mild symptoms and he is now under treatment in a hospital. His health condition is stable.”
The person from Keonjhar district had returned to Odisha from Dubai via Kolkata on December 16. At that time he had tested Covid negative.
However, after one day, he got a fever and tested RTPCR positive. So, his sample was sent for genome sequencing, where he found Omicron positive, he said. As the person returned through Kolkata, he might be exposed to the virus during the travel period, said the Director.
“Close contact of the person, his parents, have tested negative. However, we will again test them during the incubation period. If they tested Covid positive, we will conduct genome sequencing of their samples,” Mohapatra further said.
So far, nine Omicron cases have been detected in Odisha. All are foreign returnees and one of them has already been tested negative. Out of the 9 persons, five had returned from Nigeria while four returned from UAE.
Meanwhile, 221 fresh Covid-19 cases were reported in the State, taking the total number of cases to 10,54,381. With this, the total number of active caseloads rose to 1,593. The State Health Department has also confirmed two more deaths due to Covid after an audit. So far, 8457 persons have died due to the virus in Odisha.