South Africa and America reached two test positive
Maharashtra on Monday recorded two more patients affected by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, taking its total to 10 in the state.
One of them was a 37-year-old man, who had arrived from Johannesburg in South Africa on November 25. His 36-year-old friend, who had arrived from the US on the same day, has also tested positive for the new variant. , the state public health department said.
Both the patients have no symptoms and have been admitted to Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai. Both have taken Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Five high risk and 315 low risk contacts of these two patients have been traced. More tracing is being done now.
All 6263 international passengers from at-risk countries and 635 of 28,437 who arrived at the state’s three international airports – Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur from other countries – have undergone RT-PCR tests. Only 11 of the at-risk countries tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government on Monday reduced the rates of RT-PCR tests. ₹350 will be charged for sampling, transportation and reporting of samples from the collection points. ₹500 will be charged for collection from kiosks, COVID care centres, hospitals and clinics, quarantine centres, etc. ₹700 will be charged for collecting the sample from the patient’s residence.
Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that labs cannot charge patients more than the prescribed limit.
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