Two relatives of Gujarat's first Omicron case test Covid positive

Two relatives of the Gujarat's first Omicron case, a Zimbabwe resident in Jamnagar, were diagnosed as Covid positive on Sunday, and have been isolated and their samples sent for genome sequencing.

Nodal officer for Covid at GG Hospital, Jamnagar, Dr. S Chatterjee told IANS that after the 72-year-old Zimbabwe resident's results turning out to be Omicron positive, we had taken fresh samples from his close contacts and sent them for Covid-19 test. Out of them, we have got two cases of Covid-19 positive, which earlier showed negative. One positive is his wife (47) and the other is his brother-in-law (35). We have admitted both of them and they are in isolation."

"We have also sent their samples for genome sequencing to the Gujarat Biotechnology Research (GBR) Laboratory in Gandhinagar and carried tracing and tracking of their contacts. The wife of the patient is obviously from Zimbabwe and her brother is probably from the UAE," he added.

The 72-year-old man in Morakda village near Jamnagar was found to be omicron positive on Saturday. Following his return from Zimbabwe, one of the "at risk" countries identified by the authorities, the Gujarat health authorities had carried out contact tracing.

He arrived on November 28 to meet his father-in-law. After he got fever, his doctor advised him to get an RT-PCR test done. As mandated, the private laboratory informed the health authorities that his report was Covid-19 positive.