4th Omicron Case Found In India As South Africa Returnee Tests Positive

Mumbai: A 33-year-old man who returned from South Africa to Mumbai, via Dubai and Delhi, has tested positive for Omicron variant of coronavirus.

This is the fourth case of the new coronavirus variant Omicron to have been detected in India, and the first in Maharashtra.

The samples of the man, from Kalyan-Dombivli, were sent to two labs – one to Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre, which detected presence of Omicron variant, and another to NIV Pune.

The whole genome sequencing report from NIV won’t be available before Monday.

Earlier in the day, a 71-year old NRI who landed in Jamnagar from Zimbabwe was found to be infected with the Omicron strain.

The first two Omicron-positive cases were detected in Karnataka earlier this week. One of them is a 46-year-old doctor with no travel history while the other a 66-year-old South African national who recovered and returned to his home country under controversial circumstances.

Though Omicron cases are rising gradually in the country, the Union government has said it anticipates severity of the new variant of coronavirus to be low in the country because of fast pace of vaccination and high exposure to Delta variant.