DNA Special: How Omicron variant landed in India

Today's biggest news is that Omicron has reached India and as soon as it reached Karnataka, it made two people its victim. The news is that Omicron, the most dangerous variant of coronavirus so far, has reached India. Omicron has been found in two men aged 66 years and 46 years in Karnataka and surprisingly only the 66-year-old person came to India from South Africa, while the other person had not travelled to any foreign country. Therefore, it has become difficult to understand where this person got Omicron's infection.

Apart from this, the scary thing is that both these people were fully vaccinated. The 46-year-old person, who is a doctor by profession, complained of fever and body pain on November 21 and on the same day, he got his RT-PCR test done, the next day, i.e. on November 22, his report came out as positive and this the CT value was very low in the RT-PCR report.

It is generally believed that the lower the CT value, the higher the viral load in that person. After this, the samples of this 46-year-old doctor were sent for Genome Sequencing. Meanwhile, from 22 to 24 November, this person was in home isolation, but on 25th, he had to be admitted to the hospital after his health deteriorated. That is, people infected with Omicron may also need to be hospitalized.

Although he was discharged from the hospital after three days, during this time, this doctor had met 13 people. When the RT-PCR test was done for these 13 people, 3 of them were found positive. These 13 people had further met 205 people and out of these, 2 people were confirmed to have the infection. All these people have also received both doses of the vaccine. Late last night, there was a report of Genome Sequencing of this person, in which it was found that he was infected with Omicron Variant. At present, these doctors and all the people who meet them are in isolation, and their health is said to be fine.

While the second person, aged 66, is a South African citizen, who came to India from South Africa via Dubai on November 20. He had a negative report of COVID-19, but still, a new sample was taken at the airport, whose report came positive. Till then, this person had checked in his hotel. After this, a team of health department reached there, examined him and found that he is asymptomatic. After this, he was asked to stay in isolation. But on 22 November, his sample was also sent for Genome Sequencing because it came to India from South Africa. Meanwhile, he got his test done in a private lab and the report came negative. About 264 people came in contact with this person and their test report is also negative but last night's Genome Sequencing report confirmed Omicron in this person. However, this person had gone to Dubai on November 27 via flight.

The Health Minister of Karnataka has said that the confirmation of Omicron in a 46-year-old man who has never gone abroad is surprising. Now scientists are looking for the answer to the question whether Omicron was already present in India.

Many such cases have also been found in Britain, in which people did not travel to any country, but they were still found infected with this new variant. Apart from this, of the two people who were initially infected with this variant in the Netherlands, one person did not have any travel history. That's why it seems that this new variant of COVID-19 was present in the world for a long time.

Three things are clear from this news. The first is that Omicron can be transmitted to people who have taken both doses of the vaccine. Secondly, the infected person may also need hospitalization. And the third thing is that perhaps, Omicron was already present in many countries including India. However, it will be confirmed only after investigation.