CHENNAI: Three persons, including the first Omicron case reported in Tamil Nadu, a 47-year-old man who returned from Nigeria, and two of his family members, have tested negative and were discharged on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian said.
The Minister for Medical and Family Welfare after visiting the patients at the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research said the three patients had completely recovered and were discharged from the hospital.
On December 15, the State reported its Omicron case when the 47-year-old patient was detected with the new variant on his arrival here from Nigeria via Doha.
"The individual, his sister and sister's daughter have recovered and discharged.They have been advised to stay under home isolation for seven days," Subramanian said.
Five more family members of the trio, currently under treatment for Omicron at the hospital, are expected to be discharged on Friday, he said.
"With three persons getting discharged today, the total number of people who are under treatment stands at 31," he said.
Earlier in the day, an online meeting was conducted by the Union Health Ministry in which the health secretaries of various states participated.
The meeting was to discuss the preventive measures to be taken to control the spread of Omicron variant of the virus, he said.
"Tomorrow, a similar meeting will be chaired by Chief Minister (M K Stalin) at the Secretariat," he said.
To a query whether 33 people were detected with Omicron on a single day, Subramanian clarified that they were not infected on a single day and the announcement to the public was made based on the lab reports sent by the National Institute of Virology at Pune to the state government.
Noting that the Omicron variant has the ability to spread fast, he said maintaining social distancing during festivities holds significance.
"The good news is that even if someone is affected by Omicron, he does not require to be under oxygen support. However, Tamil Nadu is geared to handle such situation with adequate medical infrastructure," he said.
On the vaccination front, the minister said vaccine hesitancy was high in places like Vellore, Ranipet, and Tirupathur.
"We created awareness campaign on vaccination through volunteers in these areas. This week we will be holding similar awareness camps in Mayiladuthurai."
As many as 93 lakh people have not received their second dose of Covid vaccination and they should make use of the mega vaccination camp scheduled to be held on December 26, he added.
recorded a marginal increase in new Covid-19 cases on Thursday with 607 people contracting the contagion in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload to 27,42,224, the health department said.
As many as eight people succumbed to the virus, pushing the toll to 36,707, a medical bulletin said.
The new infections reported today include 11 returnees from various destinations which include Europe, the United Kingdom, the US, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu reported 604 new cases which included five returnees from the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and Andhra Pradesh.
Meanwhile, recoveries outnumbered new infections with 689 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 26,98,628 leaving 6,889 active cases.
A total of 1,03,938 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5,66,22,301.
Chennai and Coimbatore accounted for the majority of new infections with 145 and 92 cases, respectively, while the remaining was spread across other districts.
As many as 25 districts reported new Covid-19 infections below 10, while Ariyalur reported zero new cases, the bulletin said.