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Delhi records first Omicron case; hospital admissions not rising, says S. Africa

Tanzania returnee is fully vaccinated, has mild symptoms.

Delhi reported its first case of new Covid-19 variant Omicron on Sunday, with a patient returning from Tanzania testing positive for the variant. “First omicron case detected in Delhi. The patient admitted to the LNJP Hospital had returned from Tanzania. Till now, 17 people (who come from abroad) have tested positive for Covid and they have been admitted to the hospital,” Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told reporters here.

According to information available, the Omicron patient in Delhi is fully vaccinated and has mild symptoms.

Meanwhile in Maharashtra, seven more people tested positive for the new Omicron variant, taking the total number of cases of the new coronavirus variant in the state to eight, said the public health department on Sunday. The health department said, “A 44-year-old woman who returned from Nigeria on 24 November and five of her relatives have tested positive for omicron variant. These cases are reported from Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune.”

One 47-year-old person from Pune city has also tested positive for the Omicron variant. Of the eight active cases in the state, six are from Pimpri Chinchwad, and one each from Pune city and Kalyan Dombivali.

In Rajasthan, nine cases of the Omicron variant were reported, said the state health department. Samples of 34 people (of the family that came from South Africa and the people they came in contact with) were sent for genome sequencing and nine were found to be positive for Omicron, said the health department. The remaining 25 people tested negative. Medical Secretary Vaibhav Galriya said, “The department had already got the family from South Africa admitted to Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, Jaipur (RUHS). Five other people who came in contact with him have also been found infected. They are being admitted to RUHS.”

He said, “A family of Ajitgarh in Sikar district had also come in contact with the family. The department also traced all those eight people in Sikar. All of them have been found corona negative. All the people who came in contact are being sampled after doing contact tracing on a large scale.”

‘HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS NOT RISING’

Hospital admissions in South Africa are not on the rise, despite a jump in active Covid-19 cases triggered by the new Omicron coronavirus strain, the country’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, told reporters on Sunday. “Our hospital admissions are not increasing at an alarming rate meaning that people [who] may be testing positive are not in large numbers being admitted to hospitals,” South African outlet Eyewitness News quoted Ramaphosa as having said. “The tests still have to be done and the research still needs to be done that whilst Omicron spreads, it does not seem to be resulting in greater numbers of hospital admissions. We should take heart from that,” the President added. According to Health Minister Joe Phaahla, people must not worry as the new variant is more transmissible but seems to bring milder illness, as hospital admissions appear to show.

DECISION ON BOOSTER DOSE

The Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) is likely to meet on Monday, 6 December, to discuss an additional dose of Covid-19.

“The Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) is likely to meet tomorrow to discuss additional doses of Covid-19 and paediatric vaccination,” said sources. Meanwhile, India reported 8,895 fresh Covid-19 cases and 2,796 deaths in the last 24 hours, said the Union Health Ministry on Sunday. As per the ministry, the spike in deaths was reported as 2,426 reconciled deaths reported by Bihar were adjusted in today’s database. Kerala cleared the backlog of 263 deaths hence deaths showed a spike, said the ministry.

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