Four of family test positive for Omicron in Bengaluru

KEY STORY

• With a Covid-19 cluster of four new cases of the Omicron variant emerging in Bengaluru, the state’s tally with the new variant has risen to 23 on Wednesday.

• The new cluster has been detected at the Raheja Residency apartment complex in Koramangala, Bengaluru. The spread began with a 26-year-old woman, who returned from the UK recently, testing positive for Covid-19. Health officials said she had tested negative at the airport but developed symptoms later on, due to which she got herself tested again and was found to be positive. Her samples were taken and sent for genome sequencing.

• Her family members too developed symptoms in the intervening period and were tested as primary contacts. All their samples too were sent for genome sequencing. The family of four, apart from the 26-year-old woman, includes her 50-year-old mother, 56-year-old father and 20-year-old sister.

  ‘Secondary contacts have tested negative’

All their genome sequencing results came positive for the Omicron variant on Wednesday. “She, along with her family members, tested positive with Omicron and have been shifted to a hospital. They have mild symptoms. Their secondary contacts all tested negative,” said Dr Thrilok Chandra, Special Commissioner (Health), Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

A BBMP source said that in the first and second wave too, the apartment complex had seen many outbreaks, and three weeks ago, a cluster was reported after many people attended a birthday party. “There are thousands of people living in the apartment complex and we have been requesting them time and again to isolate foreign returnees in separate rooms till they test negative,” the source said.