Family of South Africa returnees among 9 Omicron cases in Jaipur

Four members of a family, who recently returned from South Africa, and their five acquaintances have tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus here, officials said on Sunday.

Genome sequencing has confirmed that the nine people have been infected with the new variant, Health Secretary Vaibhav Galriya said.

He said the family of four has already been admitted to the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) Hospital in Pratap Nagar.

Five acquaintances, who came in contact with them, are also being admitted to the hospital, the official said.

Galriya said samples of 34 people were collected out of which these nine tested positive for the Omicron variant.

The remaining 25 people were negative, he added.

He said a family from Ajitgarh in Sikar district had also come in contact with the family that returned from South Africa but the department traced the eight members and all of them tested negative for coronavirus.

The officer said contact tracing is being carried out on a large scale.

Meanwhile, 17 new cases of coronavirus were reported in Rajasthan on Sunday.

At present, the number of active cases in the state is 221.