Bhubaneswar: At least six people who returned foreign, who arrived in the state between November 29 and December 5, had been tested positive for Covid-19 of 246 samples sent to the Insacog Laboratory of the Institute of Life Sciences, said ILS on Monday.
Six positive foreign return testing includes two who have returned from Uganda on November 3.
Sequencing genomes are being carried out aggressively to find out virus variants given the new Omicron strains detected in India.
ILS said earlier in November (between 1 and 28 November), it has done a genome sequencing of 141 samples, which includes some foreign returns, but no one is found with the omicron variant.
So far there have been no samples tested until November 28 have revealed the existence of Omicron.
A new sample that has come after November 29 will be sorted and the variant will be known on Friday.
246 samples came from 16 different districts, said Ajay Parida, Ils Director.
He eliminated concerns about the problem that Omicron variants had not been well examined and said it was too early to say something about infectivity or severity.
“The only thing we know is that it (Omicron) has more than 30 protein surges,” Parida added.
Niranjan Mishra, Director, Public Health, said that so far they have been able to get more than 800 people who return to foreigners, who have returned to Odisha since November 29.
“Our tracking is active and each administrative district is at work.
But this takes more time because many have provided the wrong personal details when filling out the self-declaration form in the subetha air portal.
We try various ways to track and track people back And test it, “Mishra said.
Previously, experts had stated the fear that foreign returns could escape the supervision because unless they were tracked and tested, samples for sequencing genomes could not be sent to the laboratory.