While Goa recorded 44 new Covid-19 cases the possibility of the existence of Omicron variant has been ruled out following the four out of five Merchant Navy Sailors were tested negative to the new virus variant.
Goa’s active tally of the Covid cases have went up to 436 after forty four new cases has been registered on Saturday, with the the active count of the cases remained controlled in the rage of 400 plus for the past week and no death due to the virus reported.
Meanwhile the four navy crew out of the five who were tested positive for the covid were isolated out of the Omicron scare have been tested negative for the new virus variant. With this Goa’s count for Omicron variant remains ZERO.
Goa state epidemiologist Dr Utkarsh Betodkar said that one of the five samples had to be retested again due to some technical snag in the machine.
According to the PTI reports, Four crew members of a merchant navy ship, who had tested positive for coronavirus after they arrived in Goa from South Africa, have tested negative for the Omicron variant while another sample has been sent for re-testing to Pune in Maharashtra, Goa health department officials said on Saturday.
The report further stated that five crew members, including two from Russia had arrived from the Cape Town. The moment they tested positive for the Coronavirus earlier this month their samples were sent for genomic sequencing to a laboratory in Pune as they had travelled from a high-risk country.
“4 out of 5 initial samples sent for genomic sequencing are negative for #OmicronVariant. 1 sample has been put for retesting,” Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane tweeted on Saturday.
Goa state epidemiologist Dr Utkarsh Betodkar said that one of the five samples had to be retested again due to some technical snag in the machine.
“This does not mean that it has been sent for confirmation. On the other hand, since all the four samples are negative (for Omicron strain), it is more likely that the fifth one also will be negative,” he added.
