Tamil Nadu reports first Omicron case, Nigeria returnee tests positive

Chennai, Dec 15: Tamil Nadu on Wednesday reported first Omicron coronavirus variant after a 47-year-old man who had arrived from Nigeria tested positive for the new variant of the coronavirus.

The passenger who arrived here from Nigeria via Doha on December 10 had tested Covid-19 positive and six of his family members too had tested positive for the virus, the Minister for Medical and Family Welfare said.

The passenger, along with his family members who were asymptomatic, were admitted to the The King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Chennai and were "doing fine".

"In the initial level of testing of their sampling, there was S-gene drop raising the suspicion of being infected by Omicron. Now, we have the received the results sent from the National Institute of Virology. The passenger has tested positive for Omicron," Subramanian told reporters.

"With the result of the passenger confirmed, we suspect six of his family members, along with a 16-year-old child, also to be positive (for Omicron). We received the result confirming Omicron variant of the passenger a few minutes back," he said.