CHANDIGARH’S FIRST OMICRON CASE TESTS NEGATIVE FOR COVID-19

A 20-year-old Italy returnee, who was infected with Omicron, has been tested negative for COVID-19 on Sunday, informed Chandigarh Health Department.

“A 20-year-old male resident of Italy who was reported positive for Omicron variant has now tested as COVID negative today. His seven family contacts who had been quarantined and were negative earlier were retested today for COVID 19. Out of these five have tested as positive and one as negative. The report of one family member is awaited,” it said.

A 20-year-old male, a resident of Italy, had landed in India on November 22 as had come to visit his relatives in Manimajra, Chandigarh. He was under home quarantine after being found Covid positive on 1ˢDec.

As per protocol, he was put under the institutional quarantine, and the testing sample was later sent for whole-genome sequencing to NCDC, New Delhi. The report confirmed Omicron as the variant of Covid-19 he was infected with.

As per the UT Administration official statement, he was fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine which he took in Italy.

Dr Suman Singh, Director Health Services, said, “He was retested on Sunday and found negative.”

“Though he has to stay home quarantined till seven more days,” the director added.

As per official records, Chandigarh so far has seen 1076 fatalities due to Covid 19, Total positive are 65623 as of 11 Dec 2021, and 64492 have recovered from the virus.