Nine people who had been infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Jaipur have now tested negative and have been discharged from RUHS (Rajasthan University of Health Sciences) Hospital, Rajasthan's health department announced on Friday, 10 December.
Adding that they are healthy and asymptomatic, with absolutely normal reports of blood tests and CT scans, the department also stated that their doctors have advised a policy of home quarantine to them for seven days.
Parsadi Lal Meena, who is the Cabinet Minister of Health & State Excise in the Ashok Gehlot administration, said that "after the report of genome sequencing, the treatment was started by admitting the infected persons to RUHS," Mint reported.
"Besides this, tracking and tracing of all the people who came in contact with the infected patients were started."
Other than Rajasthan, the Omicron variant has appeared in states like Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, and Maharashtra.
The variant, as of now, seems to be more transmissible but less deadly. But the consensus on vaccine efficacy remains divided.
Cautioning that while the new variant is "clearly highly transmissible," and "very likely more than Delta," Anthony Fauci (Chief Medical Advisor to the President Biden) has also said that Omicron is "almost certainly is not more severe than Delta."
Additionally, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has warned that COVID induced deaths and hospitalisations will rise in Europe in the next few weeks.
Countries like France, Britain, Poland, and Norway have started tightening domestic restriction to curb the new variant, like mandating face masks or reducing the upper limit capacity of hospitality venues.
(With inputs from Mint)
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