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Rajasthan’s Jaipur reports 9 Omicron cases. Here’s how the variant spread

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Rajasthan’s Jaipur has the highest number of Omicron patients as of Monday morning after four members of a family, who recently returned from South Africa, and five of their acquaintances tested positive for the latest, a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus.

Rajasthan is the fifth state to report cases of the Omicron variant after Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi. India’s first Omicron case was reported in Bengaluru in Karnataka. After that, cases of Omicron were found in Jamnagar of Gujarat, Thane district of Maharashtra and Delhi.

“Genome sequencing has confirmed that nine persons are infected with the Omicron variant,” Rajasthan health secretary Vaibhav Galriya said on Sunday.

Here’s how they were found to be infected with Omicron:

Travel history

Jaipur’s chief medical and health officer Dr Narottam Sharma told Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar the family of four reached Jaipur on November 25 after travelling from South Africa via Dubai and Mumbai. 

Also read | India’s Omicron tally rises to 21: Tracking the spread of new coronavirus strain

When they left South Africa, their Covid-19 test report was negative. They then reached Mumbai via Dubai—their Covid-19 test report was negative as well.

Met relatives 

Dr Sharma said the Covid-19 report of a person in the Adarsh ​​Nagar area of Jaipur tested positive for Covid-19 and after tracing his contacts, officials found this family came to visit him. When samples were taken from this family, their report came positive on December 1.

Also read | Delhi’s first Omicron case a 37-yr-old man with mild symptoms

According to reports, the family also attended a wedding ceremony at City Palace in Jaipur on November 28.

34 samples tested for Omicron

Rajasthan health secretary Galriya said samples were then collected from 34 people who came in contact with the family and out of which 9 were found positive for Omicron.

He said a family from Ajitgarh in Sikar district also met the family but the department traced the eight members and all of them tested negative for coronavirus. The officer said contact tracing is being carried out on a large scale.

No infection in lungs

According to Galriya, the family of four has already been admitted to the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) Hospital in Pratap Nagar. He added five acquaintances, who came in contact with them, are also being admitted to the hospital.

Also read | Omicron scare: New rapid test identifies how antibodies fight Covid-19 variants

RUHS Hospital superintendent Dr Ajit Singh told Dainik Bhaskar the High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) report of all the Omicron patients is normal and no infection has been found in their lungs. They do not have any kind of cough, fever, cold, soreness or any other symptom on or before the day they are admitted to the hospital, he added.

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