A man who arrived in Delhi from Tanzania and was admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (LNJP) was today found positive with the new Covid variant, Omicron, said Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain.
“Samples of 12 out of 17 positive passengers were sent for genome sequencing and one of them, who arrived from Tanzania, tested Omicron positive according to preliminary reports,” Jain told ANI news agency.
So far, India has detected a total of five Omicron cases — one in Maharashtra, one in Gujarat, and two in Karnataka, apart from the new case in Delhi.
The new variant, first detected in South Africa on November 25, has been described as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Omicron, designated is potentially more contagious than previous variants, although experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe COVID-19 compared with other strains.
Meanwhile, 8,895 new coronavirus infections were reported in India, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.
According to a PTI report, the country saw a single-day rise of 2,796 fatalities with Bihar carrying out a reconciliation exercise of its Covid data, pushing the country’s death toll to 4,73,326.
