Chandigarh, Dec 12 (IANS) A vaccinated 20-year-old man, who recently returned from Italy, has been tested positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19, becoming Chandigarh's first confirmed case, the health department said on Sunday, adding that he came to visit relatives in the city.
His report for the whole genomic sequencing was received late Saturday night and was found positive for Omicron variant, Health Services Director Suman Singh told the media.
He has been in institutional quarantine for 11 days.
He arrived in India from Italy on November 22. Despite having no symptoms, he underwent a retest after the home quarantine period and was confirmed to have the presence of Omicron variant.
According to officials, the traveller had taken the Pfizer vaccine in Italy.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma told IANS that to control infighting in its party state unit, the Congress leadership made Channi ji (Charanjit Singh Channi) the Punjab Chief Minister but insulted the Dalit community by not allowing him to lead the party in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The government and drug controller's office will have to take a decision on the third booster dose based on data and cases as times goes on and including how effective the vaccine is on the Delta virus variant, he added.
The petitioner said the state had passed the Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act of 2006 but it has never implemented it in case of appointment in judicial services.
In the run up to the assembly polls scheduled early next year, the BJP Punjab unit has launched several campaigns to strengthen its organisational structure at ground level. Sharma said that work is progressing at good pace for formation of a 21-member committee at each polling booth.
