PANAJI
Five crew members of a cargo ship anchored off Mormugao but which originated from Cape Town in South Africa have tested positive for Covid-19 and are isolated as possibly infected with the new Omicron variant, officials said.
Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) lab at Pune for genome sequencing results of which are expected either on Wednesday or Thursday.
"We are considering them as suspect for Omicron and have isolated them,” said Dr Utkarsh Betodkar, who is the designated State Epidemiologist.
Three patients have been isolated at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Cansaulim and the others are still on the ship as their paperwork to disembark is as yet incomplete.
According to officials, the ship had left Cape Town on October 31 and entered Goa's waters on November 18.
Two Russian crew members had boarded the ship on November 23 of which one turned symptomatic on November 29. After this development, he and all the 21 crew members onboard were tested and results of five of them came positive.
Samples of all the five crew members who tested positive have been sent to Pune for genome sequencing.
Dr Betodkar said further action of treatment protocols and isolation will be followed once the genome sequencing results are received from Pune.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has appealed to the public not to panic over the 'suspected' Omicron cases and to continue taking precautions against the virus.
Meanwhile Goa reported 35 new cases on Monday with nil deaths recorded.
