Seven new cases in state, tally at 17

Mumbai Maharashtra on Friday detected seven new Covid-19 cases with Omicron variant, pushing the state’s total to 17. Of the seven cases, three were detected in Mumbai including one in Dharavi.

The remaining four cases are from Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune district. Of the 17 found so far, six Omicron infected patients in the state have tested negative for Covid-19, and have been discharged, health department officials said.

With the new cases in Mumbai, the total number of cases of the Omicron variant rose to five. According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the newly infected patients are males of 25, 37 and 48 years of age. The 25-year-old returned to Mumbai from London on December 1, while the 37 and 48-year-old patients returned to Mumbai from South Africa and Tanzania, respectively, on December 4. All three patients are admitted at Seven Hills Hospital in Marol area of Andheri.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to procure 2,000,000 rapid antigen test kits to quick detection of Covid-19 cases. These tests are used at malls, railway stations, bus-stops, for detecting Covid positive patients.

A proposal for the purchase will be tabled before the civic standing committee in its upcoming meeting next week. It is set to cost the civic body ₹9 per antigen kit. The kits will be purchased by the civic body in batches, and in the first batch 50,000 kits will be purchased for a cost of ₹500,000.

A senior civic official said, “We have been using rapid antigen kits in cases where we need to quickly detect positive patients. It has also helped us with mass testing primarily at market places, entry points to malls, at railway stations. RTPCR tests follow a positive rapid antigen test’s positive result for Covid-19, but we can immediately quarantine a person tested positive on an antigen tests, and check the spread of the infection.” The Omicron variant has been declared a ‘variant of concern’, with faster transmission rate.

“Only an RT-PCR test can be used to look for the S-gene drop out indicator for the omicron variant,” said Jyoti Gokhale, a microbiologist with Thane based Dr Vaidya’s Laboratory.

According to Gokhale, rapid antigen tests detect certain proteins in the SARS-CoV-2, but these tests don’t have any markers or specifications to indicate the presence of a particular variant of the virus. “Therefore, rapid antigen tests can only be used to convey a positive or a negative result for Covid-19. Antigen tests also have high chances of producing false-negative results. Due to this, the government has mandated that positive results through rapid antigen can be considered accurate but a negative result should be followed up with the RT-PCR test for confirmation,” she said.

Presently, on an average, BMC conducts between 35,000 and 45,000 covid tests per day, of which about 30-40% are rapid antigen tests, and the rest are RT-PCR tests.

Dr Mangla Gomare, executive health officer, BMC, said that besides the 25-year-old, the remaining two patients are not residents of Mumbai. “The 25-year-old is a resident of South Mumbai, the 48-year-old is a Chennai resident who had come to Mumbai’s Dharavi for professional work, while the 37-year-old is a resident of Gujarat,” Gomare said.

After the reports of the patients came out positive in the RT-PCR tests, the samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS).

The BMC also added that the 25 and 37-year-old patients were fully vaccinated, and the 37-year-old has mild symptoms, while the remaining patients are asymptomatic. The 37-year-old was admitted to the hospital by the airport authorities as a precautionary measure while the remaining two patients were hospitalised after their reports came out to be positive.

Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, said that the Tanzania returnee who went to Dharavi had to take a compulsory test at the airport as he was not vaccinated. “The patient was asked to wait at the airport till reports came, however, he left for Dharavi in the evening and the RT-PCR report came positive. Following which, the local ward office (G/North) tracked the patient and the sample was sent for genome sequencing,” Dighavkar said. Dharavi, a densely populated slum of at least 850,000 people with a population density of 354,167 per square km, was a hotspot of Covid infections in the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020.

BMC officials said that the high-risk contacts of all three patients have been tracked and tested, and none of them tested positive.

According to the health department, the four new cases in Pimpri-Chinchwad are contacts of a Nigerian national (of Indian origin), who was detected with Omicron strain of the virus on December 5. The 44-year-old-woman, along with her two daughters, had come to Pimpri-Chinchwad on November 24 to meet her brother.

“Out of seven patients found today, four have been vaccinated. One patient has received a single dose of the vaccine, while one patient has not been vaccinated. One of the patients is a three-and-a-half-year-old so not eligible for vaccination. Four patients are asymptomatic while three patients have mild symptoms,” a statement from the health department said.

Since December 1, 61,439 passengers, including 9,678 passengers from at-risk countries, have arrived at airports in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. The state has found 20 Covid positive cases of people from at-risk countries and five from other countries. The field surveillance is underway of all international passengers that arrived since November 1. Through the airport and field surveillance, 89 samples have been sent for genomic sequencing. Results of 47 are awaited so far, the health department said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra added 695 fresh Covid-19 infections, pushing the state’s tally to 6,642,372. It reported 12 deaths, taking the death toll to 141,223. Mumbai added 194 new Covid infections and added one fatality. The active case count in the state stood at 6,534.