Odisha: 2 more foreign returnees test +ve for Omicron, total goes up to 4

BHUBANESHWAR: Two sisters with recent history of travel to Nigeria have been found to be infected with Omicron, raising the number of such cases in the state to four. In a comforting development, the girls’ parents, who also travelled along with them, have tested negative for Covid-19 amid concerns about the high transmissibility of Omicron.
Niranjan Mishra, the director of public health, on Thursday said, “The girls, aged 11 and 15, and their parents had returned from Nigeria on December 13 and were in isolation since then. They were made to undergo the RT-PCR test on Tuesday. After the girls were found positive for Covid-19, their samples were sent for genome sequencing, which led to the detection of the Omicron strain. They have been admitted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar.”
Mishra further said the girls don’t have any major symptom and their health condition is stable.
Ajay Parida, director of the The Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) here, said, “We carried out the genome sequencing of eight samples, which were positive for Covid, of which the results of two returned positive for Omicron. The rest were found to be carrying the dominant Delta variant.” Three more foreign returnees tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday. Their samples have also been sent to the ILS.
Medical experts believe since it’s too early to understand the impact of Omicron, there is need for stricter compliance of the Covid norms. Jayant Panda, the government’s technical adviser on Covid-19, said, “People must remain extra cautious and not lower their guard in the run-up to Christmas and New Year.
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