India's Omicron tally rises to 21 after 17 more test positive for new variant | Top points

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India on Sunday reported 17 more cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 - nine persons in Rajasthan capital Jaipur, seven in Maharashtra's Pune district and a 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. The total number of confirmed Omicron cases in Maharashtra has gone up to eight now.

In a statement, the state health department said, "The 44-year-old, woman, who is a Nigerian citizen of Indian origin, her daughters aged 18 and 12, arrived on November 24 from Lagos in Nigeria to meet her brother in Pimpri Chinchwad area.

"The woman, her two daughters, her 45-year-old brother and his two daughters aged 7 and one-and-a-half years, have tested positive for the Omicron variant as per the report given by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV)." Their thirteen contacts had been traced and tested, it said.

ALSO READ | Six from family, one other test Omicron positive in Pune

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 from Gujarat and a 33-year-old man from Maharashtra's Thane tested positive for the new strain. The marine engineer, who had arrived in Delhi from South Africa on November 23 and had then taken a flight to Mumbai, is currently undergoing treatment at a COVID-19 care centre in Kalyan town, located about 50 km from Maharashtra capital.

"He is stable and responding well to treatment," deputy director of health services, Mumbai circle, Dr Gauri Rathod told PTI.

The first patient to test positive for Omicron in Delhi is a 37-year-old resident of Ranchi who had travelled from Tanzania to Doha and from there to Delhi on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2. He stayed in Johannesburg, South Africa, for a week.

The person is "fully vaccinated" and is currently admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital with "mild symptoms". "He had to take a connecting flight to Ranchi, where he lives with his family. Since he gave his sample at the IGI Airport which came out positive, we admitted him to LNJP hospital," the official said.

Authorities are trying to locate and isolate 10 people who occupied the seats close to this passenger on the flight. Delhi's Health Minister Satyendar Jain said 17 COVID-19 patients and six of their contacts have been admitted to the LNJP Hospital so far.

"The Omicron variant has been found in one of the 12 samples sent for genome sequencing so far, according to a preliminary report," he said "The patient complained of sore throat, fever and body ache. He is stable now," Medical Director Suresh Kumar said.

The Delhi health minister said banning international flights is the most effective way to contain the spread of the Omicron variant even as he appealed to people to wear masks and take COVID-19 vaccine. He said there is a 99 percent chance that the mask can save people from all COVID-19 variants, be it Alpha, Beta, Delta or Omicron.

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.

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. Also, two percent of the passengers arriving on flights from other countries will be subjected to the test randomly.

The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.

The new Omicron coronavirus variant has been confirmed in 23 countries and their number is expected to rise, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said.

India has also added several countries to the list from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in the country, including post-arrival testing for infection. 

Meanwhile, the Centre targets 100 per cent COVID-19 adult vaccination under the 'Har Ghar Dastak' program by December 31 as India achieved 50 per cent fully vaccinated adult population landmark on Sunday. The states/Union Territories with more than 50 per cent of the adult population fully vaccinated are Andaman Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Tripura.

ALSO READ | ​Rajasthan: 9 test positive for Omicron in Jaipur; India's tally jumps to 21