A 34-year-old man has tested positive for Omicron variant after returning from South Africa, said Karnataka's health minister Dr. Sudhakar K in a tweet. He has been isolated and being treated in a government hospital, the minister said.
"Five of these primary and 15 secondary contacts have been traced and their samples sent for testing," the minister informed.
Meanwhile, Chandigarh reported its first case of the new variant as a 20-year old Italian resident has tested positive for the virus on Saturday night, said health department official on Sunday.
The health official said that the man, a resident of Italy, landed in India on November 22 and tested negative for Covid-19 at his arrival at the Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport in Amritsar. He then travelled to Chandigarh to meet his relatives and was staying in the Manimajra area. "The man, who is fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine and has been asymptomatic, was put under home quarantine and was tested again on December 1 after he completed eight days in quarantine," Chandigarh health department said.
Another case has been reported in Andhra Pradesh, as 34-year-old foreign traveller, who came from Ireland to Mumbai Airport, was tested and found negative for Covid-19. He was allowed to travel to Visakhapatnam on November 27, 2021.
After he was found Covid-19, 18 positive after a re-test at Vizianagaram, his sample was sent to CCMB, Hyderabad for genome sequencing and the result was declared as Omicron positive.