Chennai: With a 47-year-old man becoming the first Omicron positive case in Tamilnadu, a woman, who arrived from Congo, has tested positive for Covid with S-gene dropout symptoms.
The 47-year-old arrived from Nigeria via Doha and six of his family members were isolated after they tested positive and showed symptoms of S-gene drop out, indicating Omicron variant.
Of this, the tests reports confirmed that the 47-year-old was infected with Omicron variant and was admitted to the hospital.
The samples of six of his family members and a co-passenger, who too showed symtpoms for suspected Omicron were sent to lab tests for confirmation.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan told reporters here that a women from Arani in Vellore district, who had recently arrived from Congo, has tested positive for Covid with S-gene drop symptoms and her samples were sent for lab tests for Omicron confirmation.
With this, samples of eight air passengers, who had arrived in the State, were sent for lab tests to confirm whether they were infected with Omicron variant and the results are expected soon, he said.
Appealing to the people not to panic, he urged them to subject themselves to tests if they had any symptoms.
Stating that 1.11 lakh beds were readied across the State and the government is taking all steps to check the spread of the Omicron variant, Dr Radhakrishnan said necessary directions were issued to all district collectors to put in place all measures to prevent the virus spread.
He also said that fatality could be avoided if people took two Covid vaccine jabs and stressed the importance of wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing.