Bengaluru, Dec. 02: The Bengaluru Civic body’s (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike – BBMP) Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that two persons — a 66-year-old and another 46-year-old— in Bengaluru have been detected with Omicron, the new variant of Covid virus, on Thursday.
Mr Gupta told reporters that among those detected with a new variant of the virus, the 66-year-old is South African national, while 46-year-old is a resident of Bommanahalli in Bengaluru.
He added that the local resident (46 year old) has no travel history but testing positive for Omicron is a matter of concern as this only proves that many in Bengaluru may have contracted this new variant.
“The 46 year old patient was tested on November 22 and his genome sequencing report confirmed that he is Omicron variant positive on Thursday. The patient who tested positive for Omicron is from Bengaluru who developed symptoms of fever and body ache on November 21, who has no travel history. At present he is clinically stable and under watch,” Mr Gupta explained.
The commissioner said that 13 of his primary and 205 secondary contacts have been tested, and three of the primary contacts and two of secondary ones have tested positive. “These five patients have not only been isolated, but also their samples will be sent to genome sequencing to the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS),” he said.
Mr Gupta said that the South African national had left for Dubai on November 27 after testing negative after he returned to India on November 20, and was quarantined in a hotel. “As many as 24 of his primary, and 240 secondary contacts were tested, and found to be negative. But they are still under surveillance,” he said.
