Mumbai reports India’s fourth Omicron case

Passengers wearing protective face masks are seen at the Mumbai International Airport. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

A 33-year-old man has tested positive for the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, in Dombivli following his return from South Africa - one of the "high-risk" countries. The passenger had travelled from Cape Town via Dubai and Delhi, and is the first patient to be detected with the new Covid-19 variant in the state.

As per the public health department, the patient, who is an engineer from Kalyan-Dombivli, is unvaccinated. While unvaccinated travellers can enter the country, RT-PCR is mandatory on arrival.

On November 24, he had contracted mild fever, however, no other symptoms were observed. This mildly symptomatic patient is being treated at the COVID Care Centre in Kalyan-Dombivli. Officials have traced 12 of his high-risk contacts and 23 low-risk contacts, but all have tested negative. Additionally, 25 of the co-passengers from the Delhi-Mumbai flight have also tested negative. More contacts are currently being traced.

Meanwhile, results of the genomic sequencing sample of a 60-year-old male passenger, who had arrived from Zambia, has been obtained from the National Institute of Virology. While Omicron has been ruled out, a sub-lineage of the Delta variant has been detected.

"Since December 1 this year, eight passengers have tested positive for Covid-19 and their samples have been sent for genomic sequencing," said Dr Pradip Awate, head of the epidemiology cell of the state health department. These eight persons were found positive after conducting RT-PCR test by the BMC. Out of the eight people, five came from London, and one each from Mauritius, Germany and Portugal.

"Seven out of nine COVID-19 positive persons tested negative for S gene, which is a primary test for detection of Omicron. We have sent all the samples from the air travellers of the last five days for genome sequencing," said an official from the BMC. Until Saturday morning, 3,839 passengers arriving from at-risk countries at Mumbai airport were tested with RT-PCR.

Field surveillance of all international passengers who have arrived since November 1 is underway.

"Genetic mutation in viruses is a natural phenomenon. People should follow COVID-appropriate behaviour and inform the Public Health Department authorities if they have had an international travel history in the last month. Those who have not taken the vaccine or have had only one dose, should complete their vaccination at the earliest," said an officer from the Public Health Department.