Omicron Covid variant reaches India: What we know so far about the 2 cases

The new Covid variant Omicron that has sparked global concerns has reached India.

Two cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected in Karnataka, the Union government said on Thursday while asking people not to panic but follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated without delay.

Here is all that we know so far on the cases in India and the Omicron variant:

2 foreign returnees in Karnataka test +ve for new strain

Patient 1:
66-yr-old male, came from South Africa on Nov 20

Tested Covid positive on arrival, was asymptomatic

Tested -ve a week later and flew to Dubai

24 primary and 240 secondary contacts have tested negative

Also Watch: School attendance in India may drop by 14% due to Omicron: survey

Patient 2:
44-yr-old male, a health worker from Bengaluru

Developed symptoms on Nov 21, tested +ve a day later

Was admitted to hospital, discharged 3 days later

Samples were sent for genome sequencing, Omicron detected

13 primary and 2 secondary contacts test +ve for Covid

Unclear so far if the contacts have Omicron strain

In all 13 primary, 205 secondary contacts have been tested

Also Watch: Omicron variant: from vaccine to test efficacy, is the RT-PCR enough?

Omicron reaches India: Things you should know:

Govt stresses on awareness, says no need to panic

Intensive screening and testing of all arrivals in India

Close to 380 cases of Omicron variant in 29 countries so far

Europe, South Africa tagged as 'at-risk' countries

WHO has designated Omicron as a variant of concern

Believed to have 50+ mutation, 30 on spike protein

Significantly more infectious than the Delta variant

Scientists still to figure if current vaccines can protect

Also Watch: Omicron likely to cause 3 times more reinfections than Delta | study