Chennai, Dec 6 (IANS): A 63-year-old passenger, who arrived at Tiruchi international airport from Singapore late on Sunday night, has tested Covid-19 positive, and his samples have been sent for genome sequencing, Tamil Nadu health officials said on Monday.

The man had only slight symptoms of Covid and his samples have been sent for genome sequencing to check for the Omicron variant.

The patient was admitted to the special ward for international travellers at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government hospital, Tiruchi. on Monday morning. Health officials said that he is from Myladuthurai district and is responding to treatment at the hospital.

The patient's samples were sent to Chennai and from there to the Indian SARS -CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSOG) at Bengaluru or Pune to find out the Covid variant and rule out the possibility of Omicron.

As of Monday, the samples of three patients have been sent to INSOG after the Omicron threat was reported. This also includes two passengers who arrived at Madurai and Chennai airports from Singapore and the UK on December 3.