Gujarat reports one more Omicron Covid variant case, India's tally reaches 78
The first case of the variant in Gujarat was reported on 4 December from the Jamnagar district in a 72-year-old Zimbabwe returnee
A woman in Gujarat's Mehsana district has tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus, taking the cumulative tally in the state to five, said officials on Thursday.
The woman, from the Vijapur municipality, had come in contact with a man who had returned from Zimbabwe.
Prior to this, a 42-year-old man from Surat who recently returned from South Africa had tested for the new strain.
On 10 December, two persons were detected with the Omicron variant in the state after they came in contact with a passenger who returned from Zimbabwe.
The first case of the variant in Gujarat was reported on 4 December from the Jamnagar district in a 72-year-old Zimbabwe returnee.
Delhi also reported four new cases of Omicron on Thursday. With this, the tally of the strain in the national capital has reached 10 and 40 people are admitted to the special facility at Lok Nayak Hospital meant for isolating and treating suspected cases of the new Covid variant.
Delhi's first patient of the Omicron variant – a 37-year-old man from Ranchi – was discharged on Monday after he tested negative for Covid-19 twice.
The new potentially more contagious B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on 24 November and has been designated as a "Variant of Concern" by the global body.
A “variant of concern" is the WHO's top category of worrying Covid-19 variants.
To deal with this, several countries have imposed travel restrictions and local lockdown.
India has added several countries to the “at-risk" list from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in the country, including post-arrival testing for infection.
Under the new norms, passengers coming from “at-risk" countries to six major Indian airports have to compulsorily pre-book for the on-arrival RT-PCR test from 20 December onwards.
The six airports are in Delhi, Mumbai Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
According to the Union health ministry, 'at-risk countries include those in Europe including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand and Israel.
Also, two percent of the passengers arriving on flights from other countries are being tested randomly.
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