One more tests Omicron positive in Odisha; state's tally rises to 9

One more person has tested Omicron positive in Odisha, taking the total number of cases in the state to nine, officials said here on Wednesday.

A 31-year-old man, who has returned from Dubai, tested positive for Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The infected man's health condition is stable and is now under treatment in a hospital, said State Director, Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra.

He returned to Odisha from Dubai via Kolkata on December 16. At that time, he had tested Covid negative, Mohapatra informed.

However, after one day, he got a fever and tested RT-PCR positive. So, his sample was sent for genome sequencing, where he was found Omicron positive, Mohapatra said.

Mohapatra suspected that the person might have been exposed to the virus during the travel period.

"Close contact of the person, his parents, have tested negative. However, we will again test them during the incubation period. If they test Covid positive, we will conduct genome sequencing of their samples," the director further informed.

So far, nine Omicron cases have been detected in Odisha. All are foreign returnees and one of them has already tested negative.

Meanwhile, Odisha reported 221 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of cases to 10,54,381. With this, the State's active caseload rose to 1,593.

The State government has also confirmed two more deaths due to Covid after an audit. So far, 8,457 persons have died due to the virus in the state.

--IANS

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