The Rajasthan Government is gearing up to deal with the spread of Omicron variant of COVID-19 after the detection of nine cases in Jaipur. Four members of a family, who had returned from South Africa a few days ago, and five of their acquaintances, who all tested positive for Omicron, were admitted to the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) Hospital here on Monday.
The nine persons had attended a wedding ceremony in Jaipur on November 28. Medical and Health Secretary Vaibhav Galriya said the relatives of the bridegroom, hailing from Sikar district’s Ajitgarh town, had been traced and were found to be COVID negative. The bride and her relatives had arrived from New Delhi.
Of the 15 persons who tested COVID positive in Jaipur on Monday, a woman had arrived at Sanganer airport from Ukraine, while another person belonged to the family found infected with the Omicron variant. Both of them were shifted to the RUHS Hospital as a precautionary measure and their samples sent for genome sequencing.
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The State reported 29 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of active cases to 221. Mr. Galriya said intensive contact tracing had been launched to identify all the people whom the Omicron-infected persons are likely to haved met during the last few days.
Quarantine centre
The RUHS Hospital’s fifth floor has been dedicated to quarantine the Omicron-positive cases, while a back-up plan has been formulated for immediate availability of oxygen concentrators and cylinders. Besides, the beds with ventilators and oxygen support have been reserved in the hospital to meet an emergency situation.
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RUHS Hospital’s Superintendent Ajit Singh said 300 of the 1,200 beds in the hospital were equipped with the intensive care facilities and the number of oxygen-supported beds could be increased from 900 to 1,000, if needed.