A 34-year-old foreign traveler, who came from Ireland to Visakhapatnam, was found positive of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. He does not have any symptoms.
The patient was again tested on Saturday, and the RT-PCR result was found to be negative, said the officials of Director of Public Health, in a statement issued on Sunday.
The foreigner was tested at Mumbai airport, and he was found COVID-19 negative in the RT-PCR test. He was allowed to travel and came to Visakhapatnam on November 27, 2021.
In the retest conducted at Vizianagaram, he was tested positive, and his sample was sent to Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, for genome sequencing, which detected the Omicron case.
This is the first Omicron case identified in Andhra Pradesh, the Public Health Department officials said.
“Fifteen foreign travelers were found COVID-19 positive, and all the 15 samples were sent to CCMB for genome sequencing. Results of ten patients were declared, of which one Omicron case is detected, and the results of other patients are waiting,” the officials said.
Public is requested not to believe rumours and panic. All are advised to take precautions to prevent COVID and follow social distancing, the Public Health officers said.
