South Africa Returnee Infected With Variant Different From Delta, Says Karnataka Health Minister

Refusing to disclose the man’s identity, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said that his COVID report shows that he has contracted a different variant of the novel coronavirus.

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New Delhi: After two people who arrived in Bengaluru recently from South Africa tested COVID positive, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Monday said the sample of one of them is ‘different from the Delta variant’.

The minister said that he was not supposed to say anything officially as he was still in touch with the union health ministry and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) officials, news agency PTI reported.

“There is a delta variant for the past nine months only, but you are saying that one of the samples is Omicron. I cannot say about it officially. I am in touch with the ICMR and central government officials,” Dr Sudhakar said, as quoted by PTI.

He informed that the sample has been sent to ICMR.

Refusing to disclose the man’s identity, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said that his COVID report shows that he has contracted a different variant of the novel coronavirus.

“There is a 63-year-old man whose name I should not disclose. His report is a bit different. It appears different from the delta variant. We will discuss with the ICMR officials and will let people know by the evening what it is,” he said.

The Health Minister informed that he will chair a marathon meeting on Tuesday with the officers of his department, from the Principal Secretary to the Primary Health Centre level doctors, regarding the steps to be taken.

The members of the Technical Advisory Committee on COVID-19 have also been invited for the meeting, he added.

Meanwhile, he has sought a detailed report on the Omicron variant.

“We will get clear information on December 1 about how the Omicron behaves after the genomic sequencing. Accordingly we will initiate all measures,” said Dr Sudhakar.

He noted that the new variant is visible in at least 12 nations and stressed that the international travellers will be tested carefully and those tested positive will be hospitalised compulsorily.

“We are tracking and closely watching all those who came from South Africa in the past 14 days. We have started tracing and testing their primary and secondary contacts since Saturday,” the minister informed.

Dr Sudhakar, a medical professional himself, also revealed that he has spoken to his classmate doctors working in South Africa, who told him that the new variant is not as dangerous as the delta variant.

“The satisfying thing I came across after talking to my classmates in South Africa is that this (Omicron variant) spreads rapidly, but it is not as dangerous like Delta. People feel nausea and vomiting and sometimes the pulse rate goes up, but loss of taste and smell is not there. There is less hospitalisation because it's intensity is not severe,” he said, as quoted by PTI.

On the possibility of a lockdown, Dr Sudhakar revealed that there was no such proposal before the government. He assured that there was no need to panic as people have already suffered losses due to the earlier lockdown in terms of loss of lives and livelihood.

As per health department officials, the two persons who flew into Bengaluru from South Africa tested positive for COVID-19 on November 11 and 20. Both were hospitalised.

The worry over Omicron variant comes as the new and potentially more contagious B.1.1.529 mutation was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from South Africa on November 24. It was named Omicron and designated as a Variant of Concern by the WHO. 

A variant of concern is the WHO’s top category of worrying COVID-19 variants.

The variant is reported to have a high number of mutations, about 50 overall. Importantly, as South African genomic scientists informed, more than 30 of the mutations were found in the spike protein -- the structure the virus uses to get into the cells they attack.

(With Agency Inputs)