'First Omicron Death' in India as Maharashtra Man Infected With Variant Dies

While the deceased was diagnosed with Omicron, the state has refrained from considering COVID as the cause of death.

Maharashtra on Thursday, 30 December, reported what could possibly be considered as India's first Omicron death.

A 52-year-old man with a travel history to Nigeria, who was infected with the COVID-19 variant, died of a heart attack on Tuesday at Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's Yashwantrao Chavan Hospital, as per the state's public health department.

While the deceased was diagnosed with Omicron, the state authority has refrained from considering it a COVID death.

"This patient has had diabetes for the last 13 years. The death of this patient is due to non-COVID reasons. Coincidently, today's National Institute of Virology (NIV) report has revealed that he was infected with the Omicron virus."

Maharashtra Public Health Department

Maharashtra, which has been observing a rise in the cases of the Omicron variant, has reported 450 such cases so far. Of these, 125 have migrated, recovered, or been discharged.

The state reported 198 new cases of Omicron on Thursday, of which 30 had history of international travel.

Further, Maharashtra observed 5,368 new COVID-19 cases and 22 deaths due to the viral disease on Thursday.

Meanwhile, India has seen a total of 1,270 cases of Omicron so far. The country saw 16,764 new cases in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shared on Friday.