31 active Omicron cases in TN
3 patients of new variant discharged; Chennai tops chart
CHENNAI: After 33 cases of Omicron variant, including 26 from Chennai, were reported in Tamil Nadu on Thursday morning, three of them were discharged later in the evening taking the total active cases in the state to 31, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said on Thursday. Those discharged include the 47-year-old passenger from Nigeria who was first diagnosed with the variant and two of his contacts, who were treated at the King Institute, Guindy.
Chennai had reported 27 cases of Omicron while Madurai reported four. Tiruvannamalai had two cases and Salem reported one. Subramanian said that all samples were sent for genomic sequencing after the S-gene-drop was reported. “Of 13 sample reports received on December 15, one was Omicron, eight were Delta and four were non-sequenced. Of the 60 sample reports that arrived on Wednesday, 30 had Omicron variant, 26 Delta variant and four others were non-sequenced,” he added.
Of the 34 cases, 27 were from non-risk countries and seven from at-risk countries. A total of 18,129 passengers have been tested so far, including 2,870 from non-risk countries.
The Minister clarified that majority of the patients are asymptomatic and have only mild symptoms of sore throat and mild fever. Among 34 passengers who tested positive for Omicron, 32 are fully
vaccinated and two are below 18 and not vaccinated. A tota of 30 had travelled from other countries, one from Kerala and three others from TN.
Of the 114 people, including international passengers and their contacts who tested positive for COVID
in the State, 45 tested positive for COVID on Day 1, while 48 others were found positive on the eighth day upon retesting and 21 other contacts of those who tested positive were also reported to be positive upon contract tracing.