Samples of COVID-19-positive couple sent to Chennai for whole genomic sequencing
The Hindu
S-gene dropout detected in both; they arrived from Sweden via Delhi
The Health Department has sent the samples of a couple, who recently arrived at the Coimbatore International Airport from Sweden and were found to be COVID-19 positive, to the State Public Health Laboratory in Chennai to confirm whether they had contracted the Omicron variant.
Sources in the Health Department said on Saturday, the 36-year-old woman and her husband, estimated to be around 40 years, arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi from Sweden on December 13. After their swab samples were lifted, they boarded a flight to Coimbatore from Delhi and arrived on the same day.
However, the samples lifted in New Delhi returned negative, the sources said. As per the Health Department’s protocol for international travellers, the couple’s samples were tested on December 20, the eighth day of their return using the TaqPath ‘S’ gene diagnostic kit at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, to detect the Omicron variant of the virus.