Bhubaneswar: In a relief for Odisha, none of the 246 samples of COVID-positive individuals sent for genome sequencing was found infected with the Omicron variant of the virus, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, informed on Friday.
These samples included those of foreign travellers and COVID clusters in Burla and Mayurbhanj.
The ILS had earlier informed that another 141 samples had also tested negative for the highly-mutated variant of COVID.
“No cases of Omicron has so far been detected in Odisha. A total of 1286 foreign returnees have registered their names in the Air Suvidha portal and the majority among them belong to Ganjam, Cuttack, Angul and Khurda,” said Director, Public health, Niranjan Mishra.
Also Read: Omicron Scare: 404 Foreign Returnees Untraceable In Odisha’s Cuttack
He further added that the government is fully prepared for any exigency from a probable outbreak of the new COVID variant.
During a high-level virtual meeting between the Centre and states on Thursday, Odisha had informed about foreign returnees, who had registered with the portal and that four among them—two each from Jajpur and Sundargarh districts— tested positive for COVID-19. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing.
Also Read: Four Returnees From ‘At Risk’ Countries Test COVID Positive In Odisha
Meanwhile, the health officials are also trying to trace about 40% of the returnees, who have gone incommunicado.
