Four of the five persons who had been tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus have recovered from the infection in Dakshina Kannada. Report on the fifth person is expected in a couple of days, according to Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner K.V. Rajendra.
He said that 16 students of Navodaya Vidyalaya, Mudipu, tested positive on November 10. Later, the Government directed the Health Department to send the swab samples of old positive cases reported in November for genomic study. Hence the district administration sent the samples of same 16 students for study on December 10. In that the results confirmed on December 18 that four of the 16 had Omicron variant. Meanwhile, RT-PCR tests of all those students done a week ago returned negative. Hence the notification on containment zone was withdrawn on December 11.
A team of Health Department personnel, led by District COVID-19 Nodal officer H. Ashok, visited the vidyalaya campus on Saturday and met the recovered students. They are all healthy and are regularly attending classes. Dr. Ashok said neither these students nor their parents had any travel history to Kerala or abroad.
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Similarly, the swab samples of 19 students of Srinivas Nursing College, Valachil, who were tested positive on December 9, were sent for genomic study on December 10. Of them, a student was found positive for Omicron. The student will be tested again on Sunday on the 10th day of quarantine, Dr. Rajendra said.
The Deputy Commissioner said this student too had no travel history. She is healthy and has no COVID-19 symptoms now.
Meanwhile, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts reported 25 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
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Dakshina Kannada reported 19 new cases and one death. After the discharge of eight patients, the district has 171 active cases and the test positivity rate was at 0.26%.
Udupi district reported six new cases, of which four patients were from Udupi taluk and two were from Kundapur taluk. Following the discharge of four patients, the district has 30 active cases.
As many as 7,267 people in Dakshina Kannada and 4,797 people in Udupi district were vaccinated on Saturday.