BHUBANESWAR: The Omicron tally jumped to eight in a week in Odisha as four more foreign returnees
detected with the super mutant variant on Sunday. Their samples were sequenced at Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar, the only laboratory in the State included in the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) for genome sequencing.
Official sources said the four foreign returnees included one 40-year-old woman, who had returned to Bhubaneswar from Nigeria along with his husband and two daughters. Earlier, her two minor daughters were found to be positive for the variant.
"She had initially tested negative for COVID-19. Her sample was sent to ILS for sequencing after she was found to be positive for the virus during the second round testing on the eight day of arrival. Her husband, however, is negative," the sources informed.
Among the three others, one youth (19) had returned to Ganjam from Nigeria and two men, aged 39 and 53, had returned to Jagatsinghpur from Dubai and Saudi Arabia respectively.
ILS Director Dr Ajay Parida said four samples were sequenced at the laboratory on Saturday and all four came out to be positive for Omicron. So far 18 samples of foreign returnees in the State have been sequenced and eight found positive for the new variant.
As the variant is spreading fast, people have to be very cautious and should not lower their safety guards, he said.
All four are now asymptomatic and they have been admitted to separate wards in dedicated Covid hospitals in respective districts as per the Centre's guidelines to check Omicron spread. Their condition is stable and their vaccination status is being verified.
So far, over 9,000 foreign returnees have arrived in the State since November 21 and around 3,700 among them underwent RT-PCR test on the eighth day of their arrival. Although nearly 900 persons have returned to Bhubaneswar, less than 100 samples were sent for tests and most of the others are yet to be traced.
Meanwhile, Odisha recorded 112 new Covid cases from 16 districts and one death in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 10,53,881 and death toll to 8452. The state had conducted 57,967 tests during the period. With 56 fresh infections, Khurda district continued to be the major contributor to the caseload. The active cases stood at 1594.