Tamil Nadu on Wednesday reported its first case COVID-19 variant Omicron, informed State Health Minister Ma Subramanian.
"Tamil Nadu reports its first case of Omicron variant of coronavirus. A 47-year-old Chennai man tested positive after returning from Nigeria," Subramanian said.
Earlier today, West Bengal reported its first Omicron case with a seven-year-old boy from Murshidabad district testing positive.
The variant has been rapidly spreading in Maharashtra with the highest number of cases across the country being reported from the state.
As per Maharashtra's COVID bulletin, the case tally touched 32.
Maximum Omicron cases have been reported from Mumbai with a total of 13 infections. Followed by 10 in Pimpri Chinchwad, two each in Pune Municipal Corporation, Osmanabad and one each in Kalyan Dombivali, Nagpur, Latur, Vasai Virar and Buldhana.
Of these, 25 cases have been discharged after a negative RT PCR test, the Maharashtra health department said.
In Maharashtra, four patients were found infected with Omicron today -- two in Osmanabad and one each from Mumbai and Buldhana. All the patients are asymptomatic, the state's health department informed.
The patient in Osmanabad travelled to Sharjah and the other patient is his high-risk contact. The patient in Buldhana travelled to Dubai and the patient from Mumbai travelled to Ireland.
"In these cases, three patients have been vaccinated and one is not eligible for vaccination," the Maharashtra health department said.
In Kerala, four more people have been found to be infected with Omicron mounting the total case tally to five.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George has informed that of the four new cases, two are contacts of the first case that was reported in the state while one is a Kongo returnee in Ernakulam and another came from the United Kingdom and is in Thiruvananthapuram.
"All the patients are stable," she said.
Hyderabad also became a victim of the virus as three cases were reported here on Wednesday.
Two foreign nationals from Somalia and Kenya tested positive for Omicron and another was a child.
Besides, Delhi, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Gujarat have also reported cases of the new variant.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor