Seven more people test positive for Omicron in state
Health minister Tope stressed on the need for increased jabs and Covid-appropriate behaviour
The number of Omicron cases shot up in Maharashtra with the samples of seven more people in Pimprichinchwad and Pune testing positive for the variant.
The seven new cases reported on Saturday include a 44-yearold Nigerian citizen of Indian origin, who travelled from Nigeria to Pimpri-chinchwad near Pune. Her two daughters, brother and his two daughters, who were her close contacts, also tested positive. The 47-year-old-man from Pune, who had travelled to Finland last month, also tested positive. The woman and her daughters had travelled to Pune on November 24 from Lagos in Nigeria. After the woman tested positive, 13 of her close contacts were traced and tested.
However, while the Nigerian woman has mild symptoms, the other five have no symptoms at all. Of these six people, three are under 18 years of age and hence, they have not taken any vaccine. The three adults are fully vaccinated, while two have taken Covishield, one has taken Covaxin. These patients are being treated at the Jijamata Hospital in Pimpri-chinchwad and are reported to be stable.
In Pune, another patient, who visited Finland, had a mild fever on November 29 and then tested positive. This man was fully vaccinated with Covishield and is asymptomatic and stable. The genomic sequencing carried out at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) found the variant in his swab sample.
Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, Maharashtra said, “Though it is too premature to predict if a third wave may set in, the Omicron strain shows mild symptoms. Hence, this variant may be in disguise. It may also act as natural vaccination and build up immunity.”
So far, a total of 4,901 international passengers have arrived in Maharashtra, at the Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur airports, from countries designated as highrisk. Their RT-PCR samples have been collected, and of these, nine were found to be Covid-positive, and have been sent for genomic sequencing.
Public health minister Rajesh Tope stressed on the need for increasing vaccination coverage and observing Covid-appropriate behaviour. “However, there is no cause for panic. Experts from South Africa said that the variant shows mild symptoms, but with high transmissibility,” he said, adding that in South Africa, there were no reports of any high need for hospitalization, ICU admissions or death rate.
On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 707 Covid-19 cases with Mumbai accounting for 207, with a total of 7,151 active cases. It also saw seven fatalities, taking the mortality tally to 1,41,170. A total of 78,858 people are in home quarantine and 916 people are in institutional quarantine.
Maharashtra has till 7pm on Sunday had administered 11,84,35,568 doses to 7,58,84,638 people inoculated with first dose and 4,25,50,930 with both their doses.
On Saturday, Maharashtra’s first Omicron case was reported after a 33-year old unvaccinated merchant navy professional who returned from South Africa, had tested positive for the new variant.