Omicron Scare: 4 Of A Family Test Positive As India’s Tally Reaches 260

Bengaluru: Four persons of a family have been confirmed to have tested positive for Omicron at an apartment here on Thursday as India’s tally reached 260.

A 26-year-old traveller from the UK and three of her family members have contracted the highly transmissible strain of coronavirus, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials informed. The lady had flown from UK to Bengaluru with a negative RT-PCR certificate on December 12.

“The UK returnee was tested negative for the virus at the airport. After two days, she developed symptoms and got her tested at a private hospital where she was found to be Covid-positive. Her family members — mother (50), father (56) and sister (20) — were also tested and their results on December 16 confirmed they were also positive. The apartment was declared a cluster and sealed. The samples were sent for genome sequencing and the results on Wednesday (December 22) confirmed they were infected with Omicron. All the members of the family were fully vaccinated,” a BBMP official said.

All four are currently asymptomatic and admitted to a private hospital for treatment. Their 10 secondary contacts have tested negative for COVID-19.

Karnataka, which reported the country’s first Omicron cases, now has 23. Maharashtra (65) and Delhi (64) contribute the maximum cases till now.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold a meeting on the COVID-19 situation at 6.30 pm on Thursday.