Panaji: Goa Health authorities on Saturday sent one of the sample of omicron suspect for retesting to the labouratory at Pune, while four more samples have come negative.
In all five crew members from a merchant navy ship, which had arrived from Cape Town (South Africa) had tested positive for COVID-19 infection earlier this month. Their samples were sent for genomic sequencing at Pune labouratory as they had travelled from high risk country.
Two of the crew were from Russia.
State Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Saturday tweeted “4 out of 5 initial samples sent for genomic sequencing are negative for #OmicronVariant. 1 sample has been put for retesting.”
State Epidemiologist Dr Utkarsh Betodkar said that the sample had to be retested due to technical snag in the machine. “This does not mean that it has been sent for reconfirmation. On the other hand, since all the four samples are negative, it is more likely that the fifth one also will be negative,” he added.
