AHMEDABAD: Days after their return from Zambia in Africa, an elderly couple from Vadodara city of Gujarat has been found infected with the newly discovered Omicron strain of coronavirus, officials said on Friday.
With the addition of these two fresh cases, Gujarat's Omicron tally has reached 7, of which three patients have been discharged from hospital.
Notably, Omicron has been found in the couple despite the fact that Zambia is a "non-high risk" country, said Medical Officer of Health, Vadodara Municipal Corporation, Dr Devesh Patel.
The coupe, a 75-year-old man and his 67-year-old wife who resides in the Fatehpura area, had arrived in Vadodara from the east African country on December 7, he said.
Though the duo did not have any symptoms of coronavirus, they went for an RT-PCR test on insistence of their relatives, said Patel.
"Both of them were found positive for coronavirus on December 12. Though they came from a non-high risk country, we isolated them at their home as a precautionary measure and sent their samples to a Gandhinagar lab for genome sequencing," said Patel.
On Friday night, Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC), Gandhinagar, informed the VMC that both were infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the medical officer said.
Patel added that tracing of their close contacts for testing was underway.
At present, a businessman in Surat and a woman health worker in Mehsana, both infected with Omicron, are in quarantine.
Three persons from Jamnagar, including a Zimbabwe-based NRI man and his wife, who were detected with Omicron after coming to the coastal city, have now been discharged from a hospital following recovery.
Omicron, classified as a 'variant of concern' by the WHO, was first detected in southern Africa last month.