The 47-year-old man, whose SARS-CoV-2 sample was confirmed to be of the Omicron variant, and seven of his positive contacts have no unusual symptoms or new onset of symptoms, according to doctors of the Government Corona Hospital, Guindy, where they were admitted.
The man, a resident of Chennai, had travelled from Nigeria to Chennai via Doha. He tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival and his sample, which was initially sequenced in the State Public Health Laboratory had the S-gene dropout, a marker for Omicron variant. The National Institute of Virology, Pune, on Wednesday night confirmed that his sample was of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, while genomic sequencing results of the seven contacts were awaited.
K. Narayanasamy, Director of the Government Corona Hospital, said the man was admitted on December 11, while six of his family members, including a 16-year-old, were admitted on December 13.
“He has completed six days in hospital isolation, while his family members have completed four. All of them came in with mild and usual COVID-19 symptoms of cold, cough, fever and body pain. We are following the standard COVID-19 treatment protocol for for them. All of them are healthy,” he said. The eighth person, a 42-year-old co-passenger, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday night.
He said none of them had new onset of symptoms or specific symptoms. “We took CT scans for all of them, and there was no findings in the lungs. Except for the 16-year-old, who is asymptomatic, the seven persons have taken the two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. This is why they have mild COVID-19,” he added. The persons were in a separate ward within the COVID-19 isolation ward. “This is completely inaccessible to other patients. We have a separate medical team for them,” he said.
