Chennai: A total of 33 new Omicron cases were reported in Tamilnadu, taking the total to 34, Health Minister Ma Subramanian announced today.
Talking to reporters here, he said the genome sequencings results received from samples of air passengers who came from both high-risk and low-risk countries revealed that 33 more people were infected with the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
With a 47-year-old man from Chennai, who arrived from Nigeria via Doha already testing positive for Omicron, the total number of cases rose to 34.
Of the 33 cases, 30 were air travellers who arrived from abroad, two in Tamilnadu and one from Kerala. The total number of Omicron cases in India rose to 269.
With the emergence of 33 fresh Omicron cases, Tamilnadu now stood third in the country in the total number of cases for the new variant behind Maharashtra (65) and New Delhi (64).
Of the 33 new cases, 26 air passengers were from Chennai, four in Madurai, two in Tiruvannamalai and one from Salem district of the State.
All the Omicron infected people were asymptomatic and their condition was stable. They were undergoing treatment in government and private hospitals.
Subramanian said of the total 57 samples sent for testing, 33 returned positive and the results of the balance 24 samples were awaited.
He also said that 20 more air passengers have reported S-gene drop out, seen as a marker to Omicron and their samples were sent to Bengaluru lab for testing. They were quarantined and were under observation.
Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan said all those infected with Omicron are being provided treatment with four-tier security.
In view of the increase in the number of Omicron cases, the health department officials have intensified surveillance in all the airports in the State to prevent the virus spread.
The State government had already written to the Centre seeking permission to test all passengers arriving from low-risk countries as the number of Covid cases from these countries were higher than those carriving from high-risk countries.
It said random testing of two per cent of passengers from low-risk countries would not yield the desired results in preventing the spread of the Omicron variant.
