Current affairs

Omicron variant is on the move: India reports its third case...Details here!

By alagu, 04 December, 2021
Omicron, COVID-19, Gujarat, India

The new and distressing Covid-19 variant 'Omicron' is making its move in India as the country has reported its third case on Saturday- December 4, two days after the reporting of the first two cases that were detected on Thursday in Karnataka. The development has come when the country has been toughening the international arrivals and strengthening the measures across its territory - particularly in the airports to tackle the spread of the variant. 

According to reports, a 72-year-old man was confirmed to have contracted the Covid-19 Omicron variant, which has become the third case in India. He returned from Zimbabwe to Gujarat and on Thursday, he had tested positive for the Covid-19 viral infection. He is a resident of Jamnagar and his sample was sent for genome sequencing to ascertain whether he was affected with Omicron. The result of the sample has come on Saturday and confirmed that he had contracted the Omicron variant. 

Gujarat Health Commissioner Jai Prakash Shivhare has confirmed that the man was found infected with Omicron. It has been reported that a micro-containment zone has been created where the Omicron infected man is staying and the officials are tracing and testing his contacts. Speaking to ANI, Manoj Aggarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare of Gujarat said, "We have isolated him and are monitoring him." 

"A micro containment zone has been made where he is living. In the area, we will do the tracing, testing of people", Aggarwal added. On December 2, Jamnagar Municipal Commissioner Vijaykumar Kharadi told PTI, "The man is a native of Jamnagar and has been living in Zimbabwe for many years. He arrived here on November 28 to meet his father-in-law. After he got a fever, his doctor had advised him to get an RT-PCR test done." 

Kharadi further said, "As mandated, the private laboratory informed us today (December 2) that his report has come out positive for Covid-19." His samples were immediately sent to genome sequencing and confirmed that he had contracted the Omicron variant, which has become a global menace. The Omicron variant was first reported from South Africa on November 24 and it was then designated as a VOC (Variant of Concern) by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

In the wake of the variant, the countries that lie on the southern African belt have been isolated while the rest of the countries had upscaled their measures to surveil the international arrivals. India, which had earlier announced to resume the international passenger services, has then shut that in the emergence of the Omicron variant. India had on Thursday reported its first two cases of the Omicron variant, that were detected in Bengaluru, Karnataka. 

With the reporting, India has become the 30th country in the world to record the Omicron cases. The Union government has said that the two patients are men aged 66 and 46. While the 66-year-old is a foreigner with a history of travelling to South Africa, the 46-year-old man is a health worker in Bengaluru. Earlier, Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal said that all people who had come in contact with the two men have been traced and tested. 

He further said, "It is too early to assess whether Omicron causes more severe infection or less compared to other variants, including Delta." ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said, "Two cases of Omicron have been detected in Karnataka through genome sequencing effort of INSACOG consortium of 37 laboratories established by the Ministry of Health. We need not panic, but awareness is absolutely essential."  

On Friday, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told the Reuters Next Conference said that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is very transmissible but people should not panic about it. She said the emergence of the variant was unwelcome but that the world was much better prepared to handle it given the development of vaccines since the start of the pandemic.

 

You may also like

Comments