Following the first case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant in Jamnagar, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel chaired a high-level meeting with the officials and reviewed the readiness of the state health system, news agency ANI reported.
The chief minister during the meeting gave clear instructions to proceed with the strategy of tracing, testing, and treatment in positive cases and appealed to people the citizens of the state to follow Covid-19 protocols and restrictions such as maintaining social distance and wearing masks at all times.
The people must stay vigilant and cautious and there should not be any panic in the context of the new variant, the chief minister stated.
India on Saturday recorded the third positive case of the new occurred Omicron variant after a 72-year-old man was found positive with Covid-19 upon his return from southern Africa's Zimbabwe.
The traveller is a resident of Gujarat's Jamnagar and had returned from South Africa two days ago. After testing positive for the new COVID variant during screening at the airport, the authorities sent the person's sample for genome sequencing to a lab-based in Pune, which disclosed that the person was infected with Omicron.
According to Jamnagar municipal commissioner, Vijay Kharadi, three people of Indian origin had returned to Jamnagar from Zimbabwe last week.
The test reports of the other two persons are pending. Samples for genome sequencing have been sent to verify the variant.
The Omicron strain has been marked as a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization (WHO).
(with ANI inputs)
