Sorgaon village in Maharashtra's Thane district, with a population of 1,130, has been declared a containment zone after 67 residents of an old age home in the village tested positive for COVID-19.
Out of these, 62 senior citizens had been fully vaccinated, as per officials cited by NDTV.
Five of the 67 patients are employees. The district administration added that 41 patients are suffering from co-morbidities, while 30 are asymptomatic.
This comes amid concerns of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.
After residents of the Matoshree old age home in Bhiwandi’s Sorgaon village reported symptoms of the virus, a team of government doctors visited the facility on Saturday, 27 November, to test 109 residents. All COVID-positive residents were admitted to a civil hospital in Thane.
District health officer Dr Manish Renge was quoted as saying, "After complaints of ill-health by a couple of inmates, a team of doctors had on Saturday tested 109 people at the Matoshree old age home located at Khadavali”, news agency PTI reported.
Dr Kailash Pawar, a surgeon in Thane Civil Hospital said, "Samples of 15 patients have been sent for genome sequencing.”
A day after the World Health Organization dubbed the new 'Omicron' COVID-19 strain a 'variant of concern', a number of Indian states on Saturday, 27 November, issued directions to prevent the spread of the viral disease.
To curb the spread of Omicron, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had announced on Saturday that every person returning from South Africa will be quarantined on arrival in Mumbai and their samples will be sent for genome sequencing.
(With inputs from NDTV and PTI.)
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