Health officials heaved a sigh of relief as 12 COVID-19 infected foreign returnees, who included two carrying Omicron variant, recovered from illness in south coastal Andhra Pradesh.
Of the 12 persons, 10 are from Nellore district and two from Prakasam district.
A 62-year-old man, who had returned to Ongole from South Africa, where the first case had been reported before it spread across the globe, was discharged from the Government General Hospital here.
A 46-year-old man, who had returned to Chirala from the UAE, was also discharged from hospital on recovery, Prakasam District Medical and Health Officer P. Ratnavalli said.
The health condition of three more foreign returnees who were undergoing treatment for Omicron in Prakasam district was stable. A close watch was being maintained by the health workers to ascertain the health condition of their primary contacts, who were confined to their homes.
In Nellore district, 10 of the 1,961 returnees from the U.S., the UAE, and other countries had tested positive for COVID-19. However, none of them carried the Omicron variant. “All of them have been discharged from hospital on recovery,” the officials said.
Health officials are working overtime to keep track of the foreign returnees.
As many as 1,729 foreign returnees had been tested in Prakasam district so far. Nineteen of them had tested positive for COVID-19. Samples of three of them were found negative by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. Test reports of 11 others with foreign travel history sent for genome sequencing were awaited, COVID Management Centre coordinator B. Thirumala Rao said.
