Telangana Reports First Local Transmission of Omicron After Hyderabad Doctor Tests Positive
Telangana on Wednesday reported its first case of local transmission of Omicron after the genome sequencing results of a Hyderabad doctor returned positive for the new variant. As many as four more people tested positive for the variant on Tuesday, taking the cumulative cases of the new strain to 24. The state now stands third behind Delhi and Maharashtra in the number of Omicron cases.
The doctor, an oncologist, had reportedly treated foreign nationals including an Omicron positive patient on December 16. The state health department has begun tracing and testing samples of all those he had come in contact with over the past few days, including all his cancer patients and colleagues, a New Indian Express report said. Their samples are being collected and sent for genome sequencing.
The results of samples from 13 others who are positive for Covid-19 are awaited.
Besides contact tracing, 2% random samples were being tested and sequenced among passengers from non-at-risk countries, as per Union government guidelines. However, Telangana Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao said that authorities in Hyderabad were focusing on testing more of unvaccinated or partially vaccinated travellers.
“If any local residents (without travel history) test positive for coronavirus, just continue with the usual treatment. Don’t be too concerned with which variant. Genome sequencing is currently being done at the border level to prevent spread,” he said.
Telangana today reported 172 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the tally to 6,79,892, while the death toll rose to 4,016 with one more fatality. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 86, followed by Ranga Reddy (20) district, the bulletin said, providing details as of 5.30 pm on Tuesday.
The number of recoveries outnumbered fresh cases with 188 people recovering from the infectious disease. The cumulative number of recoveries till date was 6,72,251.
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