Around 1,000 people have returned to Odisha from 11 countries since 26 November– the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel – which are categorized as ‘at-risk’ countries.
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At least 4 people returning to Odisha from the ‘countries-at-risk’ have tested positive for COVID-19 with the samples drawn from them sent for genome sequencing to ascertain whether they were the carriers of Omicron variant of the pandemic, said Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra.
The samples of returnees from ‘countries at risk’ along with other infected people are being clinically tested and the diagnostic reports on possible Omicron variant infection are awaited on Friday, he said.
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Around 1,000 people have returned to Odisha from 11 countries since 26 November– the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel – which are categorized as ‘at-risk’ countries.
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However, close 40% of the overseas returnees are found to have provided the wrong addresses and contact numbers in the Air Suvidha portal. The authorities at the district level are on the job to trace them and carry out the contact tracing.
“So far, 246 positive samples including those who returned from ‘countries at risk’ are under genome sequencing clinical scrutiny for Omicron variant detection. Last month, a total of 141 Covid-19 positive samples of foreign returnees in Odisha were genome sequenced, but none of them found the presence of the Omicron variant of the virus”, said Institute of Life Sciences (ILS)-Bhubaneswar Director Ajay Parida.
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