Omicron cases rise to 16 in Andhra Pradesh, health officials caution people
Vijayawada: The tally of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in Andhra Pradesh went up to 16 with a single day jump of 10 cases on Wednesday, mainly among arrivals in the state from abroad.
State health authorities say that out of a total of 10 new cases of Omicron reported in the last 24 hours, most were air travellers who arrived from Kuwait, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, US and the UAE and some of them were their local contacts between December 14 and 21. Four of these were women.
A female aged 41, hailing from West Godavari arrived from Kuwait on December 21 and tested Covid-19 positive. The subsequent genome sequencing test found her to be Omicron positive. Similarly, a male aged 48, hailing from Guntur, arrived from high risk Nigeria on December 18. Another male aged 50 hailing from East Godavari arrived from Saudi Arabia on December 14. A male aged 28, hailing from Chittoor arrived from the US on December 21 and another male aged 22 hailing from Anantapur also arrived from the US on December 18.
These apart, a male aged 45 hailing from Kurnool arrived from the UAE on December 20 while a woman aged 41 hailing from Kurnool too arrived from the UAE on December 20. A male aged 22, who is a contact of one of the infected international travellers hailing from East Godavari, a female aged 39, who was a contact of the international traveler hailing from East Godavari and a female aged 17 hailing from Anantapur tested Omicron positive.
The state health authorities maintain that all the contacts of Omicron positive cases are traced, tested and their Covid positive samples were sent for genome sequencing to the CCMB in Hyderabad and the test results were awaited.
Meanwhile, the health authorities have advised the general public to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour by wearing mask, maintaining social distance, washing hands regularly, avoiding group gatherings and functions in public places during the festive season to help check the virus-spread.
