47 year old man from Nigeria, along with six members of his family a few days back, have tested positive for omicron Types of coronavirusAccording to Minister of State Ma Subramaniam, the first such case has come to light in Tamil Nadu.
The passenger who arrived here from Nigeria via Doha on December 10 did the test. COVID-19 Positive and six members of his family had also tested positive for the virus, the Minister of Medical and Family Welfare said.
The passenger, along with his family members who were asymptomatic, were admitted to The King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Chennai and were “doing fine”.
“In the initial stage of testing his sample, there was an S-gene drop raising the suspicion of being infected with Omicron. Now, we have received the results sent from National Institute of Virology. The passenger has tested positive for Omicron,” Subramanian told reporters.
First #omicron case detected #Tamil Nadu, A 47-year-old passenger who arrived in Chennai from Nigeria via Doha had +ve for . have tested #Omicronvirus, S-gene drop was observed in seven of his close contacts, their samples were sent for genome sequencing, results are awaited. @indianexpress
– Janardan Kaushik (ouskoushiktweets) December 15, 2021
“With the passenger’s result confirmed, we suspect that six members of his family as well as a 16-year-old child may have tested positive (for Omicron). We received the result confirming the Omicron version of the passenger a few minutes back,” he said.
Elaborating, Subramaniam said that a 42-year-old passenger from Chennai, who had traveled the same route from Nigeria via Doha with a family of seven, tested positive for COVID-19 and was suspected of having an S-gene drop. Used to be. Infected with the Omicron type of coronavirus.
“The passenger who was in home quarantine is now on his way to be admitted to King Institute. He is asymptomatic and is doing well,” he said.
Responding to a query, the minister said that all the eight passengers had been vaccinated and were “doing fine” and for this reason they were asymptomatic and had cold, cough and mild fever.
He attributed the detection of the Omicron variant in the state to the thorough screening of passengers at four international airports in Tamil Nadu.
“All passengers coming from high-risk countries have to undergo RTPCR sample testing, while those coming from non-risk countries are subjected to random sampling,” he said.
So far 41 people who came from high-risk and non-risk countries have tested COVID-19 positive, he said.
“These passengers have tested positive delta version Of coronavirus. Eight people who arrived from Nigeria with the S-gene drop were isolated and their samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology for sample tracing. Today, we got the first result of a passenger who has tested positive for the Omicron variant”, he said.
Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said that in such a situation, the main request from the government to the people is to wear face masks in public places, get vaccinated and follow the basic Kovid-19 protocol.
“The chief minister (MK Stalin) has issued orders and we have directed district hospitals to strengthen health infrastructure. There is no need to panic (due to the Omicron variant), it is time for people to extend their cooperation by following the COVID-19 protocol”, he said.
“We have over one lakh beds readily available and the level of oxygen tank capacity in hospitals was 1,400 metric tonnes. Subramaniam said that we have intensified our efforts to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure in the state.
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