Bhubaneswar Dec 7 : At least 6 people reaching Odisha from the ‘countries at risk’ have tested positive for the virus, official data shows. However, it is not yet clear how many of them have been infected with the new variant.
Senior health officials said 800-odd people have returned to Odisha from 11 countries – the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel – that were placed in the ‘at-risk’ category since November 26.
‘Of these, 6 have tested positive and their genome sequencing is being conducted in Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar. We are expecting that the reports will come by Friday,’ said Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) Bhubaneswar director Ajay Parida
He said the Odisha government has taken proactive measures for testing and tracking. In November, a total of 141 Covid-19 positive samples of foreign returnees in Odisha were genome sequenced, but none of them indicated the presence of the Omicron variant of the virus.
‘Any Covid-19 positive sample having CT value below 28 are undergoing genome sequencing,’ he said.
Director of public health Niranjan Mishra said the 40% of the 800 travellers who arrived in Odisha have entered the wrong addresses and contact numbers in the Air Suvidha portal.
Odisha health minister Naba Das said there is no point in panicking over the Omicron variant as it is not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants, including Delta. Though preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, this could also be due to an increasing number of people becoming infected, rather than a result of a specific infection with Omicron.
In Odisha, around 86 per cent of the population above the age of 18 years have taken the first dose while 50% of people have taken both doses. Around 74% of the adult population of 14 tribal-dominated districts have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.