Six New Omicron Cases Confirmed In Karnataka, Taking Total To 14

Six new cases of Omicron have been confirmed in Karnataka today. Five of these cases are from two cluster outbreaks of Covid in two different educational institutions in the state's Dakshina Kannada region, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said. 

The first cluster has 14 Covid cases, with four of Omicron and the second has 19 cases with one confirmed as Omicron. 

"Out of 5 students,4 have already tested negative for Covid 19 and are attending classes whereas one girl is under quarantine and even she doesn't have any symptom... None of them or their immediate relative have any travel history abroad," said Dr Ashok, the nodal officer of the Dakshina Kannada District 

A traveller from the UK has also tested positive in the state, taking the total number of Omicron cases to 14. Two patients with the new Omicron variant have been discharged so far. One had reportedly fled to Dubai. The total number of active cases of Omicron in the state is now 11.

While the international passenger from the UK and one person, a 19-year-old from one of the clusters, are vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine, the other four are not vaccinated.

Sharing details about the cases, the health department said, the 18-year-old woman passenger from the UK, an Indian national, had got tested on December 10, at the airport on arrival.

"Once tested positive at the airport, she was immediately shifted in an ambulance to the hospital the same day. The patient is asymptomatic and vitals are stable. Three primary contacts and 16 secondary contacts all are tested and reported negative," it said.

Among the cases from the clusters, the 19-year-old woman, who is vaccinated, gave her samples for a Covid test on December 8 at a college in Mangaluru and her reports came on December 9.

She is asymptomatic and her vitals are stable, the department said. Her 42 primary contacts and 293 secondary contacts have been tested, and of them, 18 students tested positive and the rest negative.

She is a cluster case from where 19 samples were sent for genome sequencing, according to the department.

The remaining four cases are girls, three are 14-years-old and one is aged 13, and they have not been vaccinated, it said.

They gave their samples for Covid tests on November 21 in a college at Bantwal and their reports arrived the next day, the department said, adding the patients were symptomatic - fever, loss of taste, and smell. They were isolated at the hostel and have recovered.

Their 79 primary contacts and 203 secondary contacts have been tested, and of them, 13 students were positive and the rest negative, it further said, adding that they are cluster cases from where 12 samples were sent for genome sequencing.

The new cases of Omicron have been detected after five cases were reported in the state on Thursday.

Earlier, the country's first two Omicron cases - a South African national who has left the country, and the other a local person, a doctor with no travel history, were detected in Karnataka on December 2.

Following this, a 34-year-old Bengaluru native who returned to the city following a business trip in South Africa had become the third case on December 12.