India’s Omicron count mounted to 147 on Sunday, within 17 days, after two people, including a teenager, tested positive for the variant after recently returning to Gujarat from the United Kingdom, according to officials.
India reported the first two cases of Omicron in Karnataka on December 2 after the heavily mutated variant of the coronavirus was first reported in South Africa on November 24.
On Saturday, India reported 30 fresh cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana. There were 26 new Omicron cases in the country on Friday and14 on Thursday and there were 12 infections on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Omicron cases have now been detected in 12 states and Union territories—Maharashtra has reported 48 cases, Delhi 22, Telangana 20, Rajasthan 17, Karnataka 14, Kerala 11, Gujarat 9, Uttar Pradesh 2, and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
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A Gujarat health department official said on Sunday a non-resident Indian (NRI) tested positive for Omicron in the RT-PCR test carried out at the Ahmedabad international airport soon after he arrived from the UK on December 15.
“The man’s sample was later found infected with the Omicron variant,” Anand district health officer Dr MT Chhari said and added he was supposed to travel to Anand city from Ahmedabad.
“But, after he tested positive for the coronavirus, he was taken to the Ahmedabad civil hospital from the airport. The patient is currently recovering at the Ahmedabad civil hospital,” Dr Chhari said.
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He added the man’s co-passengers and other contacts have tested negative for the viral infection.
A 15-year-old boy from Gandhinagar was also detected with the Omicron variant after returning from the UK, Gandhinagar municipal commissioner Dhaval Patel said.
Maharashtra reported eight more Omicron cases, Telangana 12, and Karnataka and Kerala found six and four infections respectively on Saturday, officials have said.
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Maharashtra on Saturday reported eight infections of the Omicron variant, which took the number of such cases in the state to 48, the health department said. It added 28 of these patients have already recovered or have been discharged after testing negative for Covid-19 in subsequent tests.
The number of Omicron cases in Telangana rose to 20 after 12 more people tested positive for the variant on Saturday. The state health department said in a bulletin of the 12 new cases, two were passengers from countries declared “at risk” by the Centre, and the 10 others came from other nations.
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In Karnataka, officials said of the six cases reported on Saturday, one was a passenger from the UK and five others were from Covid-19 clusters in two educational institutions in Dakshina Kannada district.
In Kerala, the two cases of the Omicron were detected from Thiruvananthapuram in patients aged 17 and 44. A 37-year-old was found to be infected with Omicron in Malappuram and a 49-year-old patient in the Thrissur district.