By PTI
JAMNAGAR: The wife and brother-in-law of an NRI man, who had been found infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 here in Gujarat, have tested positive for coronavirus and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing, officials said on Monday.
Both of them were shifted to an isolation ward, said a release issued by the Jamnagar Municipal corporation.
On December 4, the genome sequencing established that the 72-year-old NRI man, who arrived here from Zimbabwe, one of the “at-risk” countries, had contracted the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The man, who had taken both the doses of a Chinese vaccine in Zimbabwe, is currently at an isolation ward of a hospital in Jamnagar.
His wife, who came with him from Zimbabwe, and his brother-in-law, who lives in Jamnagar, tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday, while the other family members tested negative, the Jamnagar civic body said.
The samples of the duo were sent to Gandhinagar for genome sequencing, to find out whether they are infected with the Omicron variant or not, it said.
As a precautionary measure, the municipal corporation has declared the residential society, where the NRI’s family resides, a micro-containment zone and restricted the movement of people there by putting barricades.
On Sunday, Municipal Commissioner Vijaykumar Kharadi visited the society along with the corporation’s health officials and asked them to conduct door-to-door surveys and testing in the area to find out positive cases.
As directed, officials also started the exercise of administering COVID-19 vaccine to people in the area who have not taken the first or second dose till date, the release said, adding that the entire area was also sanitised.
Till Sunday, India reported 21 cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 – including from places in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Sunday urged people to take necessary precautions and expressed confidence that the new strain of coronavirus would be defeated.
He also said that the number of COVID-19 cases being reported in the state are now the lowest in the country.
Gujarat on Sunday recorded 48 new coronavirus positive cases and one death, which raised its infection tally to 8,27,707 and fatality figure to 10,095, the health department said.
