Omicron Blast in Karnataka: Reports five new cases, all patients fully vaccinated

Omicron Blast in Karnataka as many as five more cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus were reported in Karnataka on Thursday, said state health minister K Sudhakar. All the patients were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Covishield vaccine

“Five more cases of Omicron have been detected in Karnataka today. 19-year male returning from UK, 36-year male returning from Delhi, 70-year female returning from Delhi, 52-year male returning from Nigeria, 33-year male returning from South Africa (sic),” Sudhakar tweeted.

All the patients were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Covishield vaccine, according to the state health department. The country’s first two Omicron cases a South African national who has left the country and a local doctor with no travel history were detected in Karnataka on 2 December.

A 34-year-old Bengaluru native who returned to the city following a business trip in South Africa had become the third case on 12 December. The new potentially more contagious B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on 24 November and has been designated as a “Variant of Concern” by the global body.

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To deal with this, several countries have imposed travel restrictions and local lockdown. India has added several countries to the “at-risk” list from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in the country, including post-arrival testing for infection.

Under the new norms, passengers coming from “at-risk” countries to six major Indian airports have to compulsorily pre-book for the on-arrival RT-PCR test from 20 December onwards. The six airports are Delhi, Mumbai Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

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According to the Union health ministry, ‘at-risk” countries include those in Europe including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand and Israel.