Omicron enters India, 2 cases detected in Karnataka

Both the patients had mild symptoms. Severe symptoms have not been noted, said Lav Agarwal, the joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry.

Of the two cases, one was a 66-year-old South African man who came to Bengaluru on November 20 and left India after testing negative, the city’s civic agency officials said. They said the other was a 46-year-old man who is said to be a doctor -- an anaesthetist -- at a hospital in Bengaluru. He tested positive on November 22 and has no travel history to South Africa or any other country, the officials said. Both the persons were inoculated with two doses, they said. Five contacts of the doctor have also tested positive and their samples have been sent for genomic sequencing. “We were waiting for the report for the last two-three days. Today the Centre has officially said that the samples we had sent for genomic sequencing are confirmed for the new variant. So two cases of Omicron in the country have been detected in Karnataka. This proves that our aggressive testing has helped in faster identification,” Health Minister K Sudhakar said. Besides the cases detected in India, 373 cases of Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in 29 nations so far, according to the government.

No cases in TN: Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday said that no cases of Omicron have been detected in TN yet. Speaking to the media after inspecting safety measures implemented at Coimbatore International Airport, Subramanian said 3.2 lakh TaqPath kits are in stock to test the Omicron variant and 1.5 lakh more kits will be purchased.