Omicron Variant Latest News Today: Uttar Pradesh on Friday night reported its first case of Omicron after two people, including a man and woman, from Ghaziabad tested positive for the new variant in genome sequencing. As per a report by India Today, both the people, aged 60, had returned from Maharashtra on November 29. On December 2, they were found to be positive for Covid.
However, the report suggests that both the patients are asymptomatic and are under home isolation at present.
The development comes a at time, when India’s Omicron count crossed the 100 mark and the Centre advised people to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings and keep New Year celebrations a low-key affair.
On the other hand, 3 states such as Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka reported fresh Omicron cases on Friday.
Gujarat: Days after their return from Zambia in Africa, an elderly couple from Vadodara city of Gujarat has been found infected with the newly discovered Omicron strain of coronavirus on Friday. With the addition of these two fresh cases, Gujarat’s Omicron tally has reached 7, of which three patients have been discharged from hospital. The coupe, a 75-year-old man and his 67-year-old wife who resides in the Fatehpura area, had arrived in Vadodara from the east African country on December 7.
Maharashtra: Maharashtra also reported eight new cases of the Omicron variant on Friday. Of the 8 fresh cases, 6 of them in Pune, taking their overall tally to 40. The state now has 6,903 active cases of coronavirus. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 recovery rate is 97.72 per cent, while the fatality rate stands at 2.12 per cent. Out of these eight patients, two are in hospital and six in home isolation. The close contacts of these patients are being tracked. All patients have been vaccinated, the health department said.
Kerala: Kerala on Friday recorded two fresh cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, taking the overall tally to seven. The new variant of the virus was detected in an elderly couple who arrived in Kochi from the UAE. The 68 year-old man and his 67-year-old wife had arrived by a flight from Sharjah on December 8.
Centre issues advisory: Earlier in the day, the Central government advised people to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings and keep New Year celebrations at low intensity in view if the Omicron cases. Earlier in the day, the Health Ministry said the Omicron tally from 11 states and union territories stood at 111 exactly 15 days after the first case of the potentially more contagious COVID variant was detected in Karnataka, 20 new cases were reported from Maharashtra(8) and Delhi(12) to take their total to 40 and 22 respectively.
The Centre also warned it is likely that the spread of the new variant will outpace the Delta variant where there is community transmission.
