Bengaluru doctor recovers from Omicron, tests Covid positive again: Report

The Bengaluru doctor, who has no history of foreign travel, was among the first two people to be detected with Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the country.

The Bengaluru doctor, who was infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and reportedly recovered, has once again tested positive for the virus, according to a report on Tuesday.

The Bengaluru doctor tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus last month.  (AFP File Photo/Representative Image)

The 46-year-old doctor, who has no foreign travel history, was among the first two people to be detected with Omicron in the country. The other was a South African national, who was quarantined and later flew to Dubai.

"It is true that the doctor who was infected with Omicron variant has once again tested positive for Covid-19," an official of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) told PTI.

The official told the news agency the doctor is under isolation and is asymptomatic.

Health minister K Sudhakar has said the doctor, working with a private hospital in the city, developed fever and body ache on November 21 and tested positive the next day. His sample was sent for genomic sequencing since he had a low CT value, which indicates a high viral load.

HT reported the doctor attended an international conference in Bengaluru a day before he tested positive for Covid-19. The doctor attended the international conference held between November 18 and November 20 and BBMP officials are conducting contact tracing of medical professionals who attended an international conference.

Officials have been unable to trace the source of the new variant in the patient.

The 28th annual conference of the Indian College of Cardiology was conducted in a hotel in Bengaluru and was attended by around 60 medical professionals, including the infected person. So far three people, including the doctor, who attended the event, have tested positive for Covid-19.

BBMP officials have said the first case of Omicron reported in Karnataka was that of the 66-year-old South African, who arrived in Bengaluru on November 20. He tested positive for the virus on the same day, and he was isolated. BBMP reports read that none of his 24 primary contacts and 240 secondary contacts tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, police have registered a case against the South African national, who is from Gujarat, for flying out without informing the authorities in violation of the quarantine norms.

The management and staff of a five-star hotel here have also been booked for allowing the infected person leave without informing the health officials. They have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020, PTI reported cited police officials.

India has reported 23 cases of the Omicron after two more people were found infected with the latest strain of the coronavirus in Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai. Maharashtra has recorded 10 cases of Omicron, the highest in the country, so far.