Bhubaneswar: The state government on Sunday said of 23 Omicron cases detected on the day, maximum 7 cases belonged to Keonjhar district.
Giving the details of the day’s cases to the media, Bijay Mohapatra, director, Health Services said as evident from today’s cases, Omicron variant of COVID-19 has spread to 8 districts.
Besides 7 cases from Keonjhar district, Khurda has reported 4 cases, Boudh 2, Jagatsinghpur 1, Balasore 1, Puri 3, Sambalpur 3 and Angul 2 cases.
Panigrahi said of the new cases, 19 are male and 4 female. The affected persons include an 8-year-old child and an 83-year-old-person. All are asymptomatic and their condition was stable, he added.
He further said 50% of persons having Omicron variant are locals while the rest are foreign returnees. Since they had tested COVID positive earlier, their samples had been sent earlier for genome sequencing, he added.
Stating that their contract tracing has been completed, he said steps are being taken to ascertain whether the local affected persons had any travel history or not.
The director further said, “As the Omicron variant is spreading in other parts of the country, we can expect its spread in Odisha. But we are prepared for the situation as per the directions of the Centre.”
On preventive measures to check the spread of the variant, he said since its transmissibility is very high, people should take steps to prevent its transmission.
He advised the people, who have taken the first dose of the vaccines, to go for second dose and follow all COVID protocols like using masks and maintaining social distance.
