First person to be affected by Omicron in Maharashtra discharged after testing negative
Maharashtra’s first case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, a 33-year-old marine engineer, has tested negative for the virus, it was reported today.
The man, a resident of the Kalyan-Dombivli municipal area near Mumbai, was unvaccinated and had arrived at the Delhi airport from South Africa via Dubai before flying to Mumbai in the last week of November. He was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and advised to remain in home quarantine for seven days, a civic official said.
The man reportedly tried to get vaccinated but was unable to as he was working on a private merchant navy ship and had left the country at the peak of the pandemic in April this year. Vaccine doses were available only for healthcare and frontline workers at that time.
The Maharashtra health authorities had then sent his swab samples for genome sequencing and the test report later confirmed that he was carrying the Omicron strain.