BHUBANESWAR: Four more foreign returnees tested positive for Covid-19 after their arrival in the State. They had returned from ‘at risk’ countries.
Official sources said the four returnees have been admitted to dedicated Covid hospitals and their samples sent to Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) for genome sequencing to ascertain whether they are infected with the super mutant variant.
“Two of the returnees tested positive and had mild symptoms. They are now recovering at the separate ward created at a Covid facility. Two others are asymptomatic,” said a health official, refusing to divulge details about the returnees.
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.
“Eighteen returnees have tested positive. While 14 samples have been sequenced and four Omicron cases detected, the result of four samples is expected by Sunday morning,” the official added.
Meanwhile, Odisha witnessed a slight drop in daily Covid cases as only 124 new infections were reported from 19 districts in the last 24 hours pushing the tally to 10,53,769. As many as 141 cases were detected on Friday, 155 on Thursday and 183 cases on Wednesday.
Among the fresh cases, 17 are in the age group of 0-18 years. Khurda reported the maximum 61 new cases. Eleven districts did not report any cases. The State had tested 62,707 samples bringing down the test positivity rate to 0.19 per cent. Only one death was reported during the period taking the toll to 8,451.