Kolkata: Health department on Thursday said that two cases of Omicron variant have been found in the state and also that genome sequencing will be done to all Covid positive patients in the state.
According to CMOH of state health department Ajay Chakraborty, they have received genome sequencing results for three samples of the six samples sent so far late evening on Wednesday and among them two are positive for Omicron strain. The other is suffering from the Delta variant.
“Both the patients are admitted in private hospitals one came from Nigeria and the other from UK. Contact tracing has also been done but none has been found positive. One of the two persons is from Alipore and both the patients are kept in isolation,” said the CMOH.
Notably, two weeks back, a seven-year boy who had returned to the state from Abu Dhabi through Hyderabad and was tested positive with the Omicron strain. But in the second testing during the isolation in the state government hospital in Malda, he was found negative and is currently in home isolation.
The state government on December 22 had issued a notification stating that all the passengers traveling from abroad whoa are Covid positive will have to stay in isolation in state government’s isolation wards and not in home isolation.
“The state government’s isolation centers will be available for those who are traveling from other countries. No home isolation will be allowed for them. Designation authorities will provide specimens collected for genome sequencing to the School of Tropical Medicine (STM). In such cases, there will be separate isolation and mixing with other positive cases won’t be allowed,” said the notification.
The state government’s notification further stated that if the genome sequencing test report comes positive for B.1.1.529 (Omicron Variant), then the patient must not be discharged until two successive Covid-19 RT-PCR reports (48 hours apart) becomes negative.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on Thursday evening with the union health department to find out remedies to stop spreading of the Omicron variant.
