New Delhi: India reported 17 more cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on December 5 — nine in Rajasthan capital Jaipur, seven in Maharashtra’s Pune district and a 37-year-old fully vaccinated man who arrived in Delhi from Tanzania — taking the tally to 21 in the country.
Most of those who tested positive either recently arrived from African countries or were in contact with such people. With this, four States and the national capital have now reported cases of the potentially more contagious variant which has sparked a fresh alert across the world.
The nine people who tested positive in Jaipur include four members of a family who returned from South Africa recently. “Genome sequencing has confirmed that nine persons are infected with the omicron variant,” Rajasthan Health Secretary Vaibhav Galriya said.
The new cases in Maharashtra include a woman who along with her two daughters came from Nigeria, her brother and a man who returned from Finland in the last week of November, officials said. The total number of confirmed Omicron cases in Maharashtra has gone up to eight now.
The country reported the first two cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on December 2 in Karnataka — a 66-year-old South African flyer and a 46-year-old Bengaluru doctor with no travel history. Both men are fully vaccinated. On December 4, a 72-year-old NRI from Gujarat and a 33-year-old man from Maharashtra’s Thane tested positive for the new strain.
The country reported the first two cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Thursday in Karnataka — a 66-year-old South African flyer and a 46-year-old Bengaluru doctor with no travel history. Both men are fully vaccinated.
On Saturday, a 72-year-old NRI man from Gujarat and a 33-year-old man from Maharashtra tested positive for the new strain.
All Covid-positive international travellers are being admitted to the LNJP Hospital, where a dedicated ward has been set up for isolating and treating them.
According to the Centre, the countries designated as “at-risk” are European countries, including the UK, and South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
Under the new norms, RT-PCR tests are mandatory for passengers arriving from the “at-risk” countries and they will be allowed to leave the airport only after the results come.
Also, two per cent of the passengers arriving on flights from other countries will be subjected to the test randomly.
