Kerala on Sunday, 12 December, reported its first Omicron case, after a person from Kochi tested positive for the new COVID-19 variant, taking the total tally of Omicron cases in India to 38. This came hours after new cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus were reported from Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Karnataka.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George said that the concerned person had returned from the UK to Kochi on 6 December. He had tested COVID-19 positive on 8 December, she said, reported ANI.
Maharashtra's Nagpur too reported its first Omicron case on Sunday, after a 40-year-old man with travel history from West Africa returned to the city and tested positive.
Nagpur's First Case
"After returning to Nagpur, the man underwent genome sequencing along with the COVID-19 test. Only then did it become clear that he had an omicron infection," Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B told ANI.
He further shared that the man is stable and presently undergoing treatment at the hospital.
"Other members of the patient's family have been reported negative. Other people who came in contact with the patient concerned are being traced and all of them will be tested by the administration. Samples were taken from the person concerned at Nagpur airport on 4 December."
Other New Cases
In Andhra Pradesh, the variant was detected in a 34-year-old passenger from Ireland, the public health director of Andhra Pradesh said in a press note on Sunday, 12 December. This is the first case of the variant in the state.
The foreign passenger had travelled from Ireland to Mumbai and was allowed to travel to Visakhapatnam following a negative RT-PCR test. However, a retest was conducted at Vizianagaram and he was found to be positive.
"His sample was sent to CCMB, Hyderabad for Genome Sequencing and result declared as OMICRON positive. He does not have any symptoms and was re-tested on 11 December and RT-PCR result found to be negative for COVID-19. There are no other Omicron cases in the state (sic)," the press note stated.
Another case was reported from Chandigarh where a 20-year-old man from Italy tested positive, reported ANI. He had landed in India on 22 November and was diagnosed with COVID-19 on 1 December. He was fully vaccinated.
The man, however, has tested negative for COVID-19 in a subsequent test, Chandigarh's Health Department said on Sunday. Seven of his family members, who had been quarantined and were negative earlier were retested for COVID-19. This time, five of them turned out to be positive and one was negative for the virus. The test report of one of his family members is awaited, reported ANI.
And a third one was reported from Karnataka, where a 34-year-old male returning from South Africa tested positive. The passenger is in isolation and is being treated in a government hospital.
Earlier, cases of this new variant have been reported from Rajasthan and Delhi as well.
(With inputs from ANI)
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