Two more Omicron cases detected in Gujarat, Mumbai

New Delhi: India reported two more cases of Omicron variant of the coronavirus on Saturday Gujarat and Maharashtra reported one case each.

In Gujarat, a 72-year-old man has been found infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Jamnagar city of Gujarat following his return from Zimbabwe, the state health department said on Saturday. This is the third case of the Omicron variant detected by Indian authorities. Earlier, two persons had tested positive for this variant in Karnataka.

The sample of the elderly man was sent for genome sequencing, after he tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, December 3, the Gujarat health department said. Gujarat's Commissioner of Health Jai Prakash Shivhare confirmed that the man was found infected with the Omicron variant. The Omicron strain has been marked as a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization (WHO). More details on the case are awaited.

In the fourth case, a 33-year-old person from Kalyan-Dombivli who recently returned from South Africa found positive for Omicron variant of COVID-19, State Health Department said on Saturday. This is the first case of the variant in Maharashtra and the fourth in the country.Ads by "The 33-year-old passenger arrived in Mumbai on November 24 from Capetown, South Africa through Dubai and Delhi.

He hasn't taken any vaccine. 12 of his high-risk contacts & 23 of the low-risk contacts have been traced and all have been tested negative for COVID19," Maharashtra Health Department said. Additionally, 25 of the co-passengers from the Delhi-Mumbai flight have also been tested negative. More contacts are currently being traced.

On Thursday, December 2, the Union Health Ministry announced that the first two cases of the Omicron variant in India were detected in Karnataka. Those infected included a 66-year-old man with travel history to South Africa, and a 46-year-old man who works as a doctor in Bengaluru.