Close contact of Covid infected traveller who returned from Nigeria tests positive for virus

PUNE One of the close contacts of a Covid-19 infected traveller who returned from Nigeria tested positive for the infection in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation area.

Apart from three samples of infected people, the PCMC has now sent13 more samples of contacts of the infected for genome sequencing. These samples had tested negative for Covid-19. All the samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), said the officials.

A total of three travellers who returned to Pune district had tested positive for Covid-19. A returnee from Zambia, among the high-risk countries with regards to the newly confirmed Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 variant, has been tested positive for the Covid19 infection in Pune city and his samples have been sent for genome sequencing by the civic body. Two travellers who arrived from Nigeria, were found infected with Covid-19 in Pimpri Chinchwad area. On Tuesday one of the contacts of these two travellers tested positive for the infection.

Dr Laxman Gophane, medical officer of PCMC said the two travellers and one of their close contacts have tested positive for Covid-19 and all three are currently undergoing treatment at New Jijamata Hospital. “The two travellers tested positive on November 29 and their one close contact tested positive on November 30. Their condition is stable and all three are asymptomatic,” he said.

“Till now we have tracked down 14 contacts of these travellers. We had taken samples of all these close contacts. One tested positive for Covid and the samples of the remaining 13 have tested negative for Covid19. However, we have sent a total of 16 samples, including these 13, for genome sequencing to NIV,” he added.