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Chandigarh dodges Omicron scare, for now
Genome sequencing finds that the Chandigarh man who had tested positive for Covid-19 on returning from South Africa last month is not infected with the new Omicron variant
The 39-year-old Chandigarh man who had tested positive for Covid-19 on returning from South Africa last month is not infected with the new Omicron variant, the UT health department said on Tuesday, after receiving the genome sequencing report of his swab samples from the National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi.
The man, a resident of Sector 36, had tested negative on his arrival at the airport on November 21, but was found positive in the retest on November 29 even as he had remained quarantined at his house. His wife and child had also tested positive, while three other family members and contacts tested negative.
“The test reports revealed that the man is infected with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant of concern, and hence he is not infected with the Omicron variant,” Dr Suman Singh, director, health services, Chandigarh, said, adding that his wife and child are also infected with the Delta variant.
Dr Singh said the health department has also traced the family’s infection history and found that the child was the first to develope symptoms. “Since the man had returned from a high-risk country, he became the primary case. All three are isolated at hospital and are have a good health condition. We will conduct their repeat test on December 8, and will send them home if the results come negative,” she said.
The World Health Organisation has warned that the risk related to Omicron (B.1.1.529) strain is “very high”. First detected in South Africa, the “highly divergent” strain has been spreading globally at a high speed with around two dozen cases detected across five states in India till Monday.
The Delta variant, another “variant of concern” that has spread in more than 85 nations , is seen as the major reason behind the second wave in Chandigarh. Over 90% of the genome sequencing reports received by the UT health department since June have confirmed its presence.
“As Covid-19 has many variants with higher chances of transmissibility, people are requested to get vaccinated at the earliest as it is the only key to controlling the infection severity,” said Dr Singh.
Tricity records first death this month
Meanwhile, a 52-year-old woman from Nayagaon, Mohali, succumbed to Covid-related complications at the PGIMER on Tuesday.
It is the first death due to the virus in the tricity this month. The previous death took place on November 30, also of a Mohali resident.
Meanwhile, 16 new cases were reported in the tricity in the last 24 hours, of which eight surfaced in Chandigarh, seven in Mohali and one in Panchkula. As far as active cases are concerned, there are 65 in Chandigarh, 55 in Mohali and 15 in Panchkula, taking the tricity’s total to 135.
