Bhubaneswar: As many as two people have been detected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in Odisha, informed Director of Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar.
Reportedly among the two Omicron positives, one person returned from Nigeria and another returned from Qatar. Both the Omicron positives are residents of Jagatsinghpur and Khordha, added reports.
One among the two Omicron positives is asymptomatic, said reports. The other person has minor symptoms like cough. While both of them are in isolation, their health condition is said to be stable, informed Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra. The patient of Jagatsinghpur is being treated at a hospital in Cuttack.
The Omicron positives are in their early 40s that is 43 and 41 years old respectively. The health authorities have initiated the contact tracing of the Omicron positives as well as their travel details. As of now, 11 contacts of the Nigeria returnee as well as 10 contacts of the Qatar returnee have been traced and the samples have been sent for genome sequence testing.
It is noteworthy that with these two cases in Odisha, the number of Covid Omicron positives in India has risen to 202.
A high-level meeting of the health department with senior officials was held at Loka Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar following the detection of the Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra said that after November 21, as many as 8800 people have returned to Odisha from foreign countries, 1600 from at-risk nations. The Covid positive sample of 12 foreign returnees were sent for genome sequencing and among them, two were detected positive for Omicron. He mentioned that both returnees were from non-at-risk countries.
Ms Kalinga