Kolkata: Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) Ajay Chakraborty on Friday confirmed that a woman who had returned from the United Kingdom to Kolkata has been tested covid positive. Chances are there that she is affected by the new variant of the virus Omicron.
“One patient who came from the UK found positive for Covid. The specimen had been sent for genome sequencing at Kalyani institute. The patient is stable,” said the CMOH.
Incidentally, the patient is identified as a 18 year old woman, who arrived from Doha on Qatar Airways flight QR 540.
The CMOH also mentioned that the patient was initially sent to the Beliaghata IDBG Hospital, but later she chose to get admitted at a private hospital for institutional quarantine.
Soon after this development the state Health Secretary held a meeting in Nabanna to find out ways to tackle this new variant of the virus.
Notably, the Omicron variant has been designated as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). The variant has also been classified as a highly transmissible virus.
Meanwhile, the Kolkata airport has decided to add several swab collection counters, a waiting area, food-beverage counters, and two ambulances at the airport.
However, West Bengal recorded 628 fresh COVID cases on Friday, with Kolkata topping the caseload with 2,173 active cases, followed by North 24 Parganas district. The total number of new cases in the state was 567 on Thursday.
