New Delhi: Twelve suspected patients of Omicron, who flew in the national capital from "at risk" countries", are admitted to the Delhi government's LNJP Hospital, according to a senior hospital official, who added that of these, eight patients have been confirmed Covid-19 positive and four are exhibiting symptoms such as sore throat, fever and a history of contact with patients.
All their samples have been sent for genome sequencing and the results will take four or five days, the official said.
"Four patients are from UK, four from France, two from Netherlands, one from Belgium and one from Tanzania. Two of the patients are foreign nationals," said Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital.
Four of the patients tested positive through RT-PCR while four tested positive through the rapid antigen test, he added.
Earlier this week, the Delhi government had designated the LNJP hospital for the treatment of patients infected with the new Omicron variant of coronavirus. According to the Centre, the countries designated as "at-risk" include the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
Two Omicron cases have been confirmed in India so far, both in Karnataka. One of them is a 46-year-old fully vaccinated doctor from Bengaluru with no travel history.
He developed symptoms of fever and body ache on November 21.
Travellers from these "at-risk" countries are following additional measures on arrival in India from Tuesday midnight. Under the new
norms, RT-PCR tests are mandatory for passengers arriving from the "at-risk" countries and they will be allowed to leave
the airport only after the
results come.
Meanwhile, the Capital on Friday reported 54 new Covid-19 cases and zero deaths
from the virus — with the
daily positivity rate rising to 0.09 per cent. Active cases rose to 332 and the death toll remained at 25,098.