India Reports COVID Cases Of Omicron Variant

New Delhi: Two cases of Omicron Variant have been reported in the country so far and both are from Karnataka, Joint Secretary, Union Health Minister, Lav Agarwal informed on Thursday.

While one among them had travel history to South Africa, the other is an health worker.

“All their contacts have been identified and they are being monitored. The protocol is being followed,” he said.

Agarwal further said that no severe symptoms of this variant of COVID-19 have been reported so far.

Around 29 countries have reported 373 cases of Omicron Variant, he added.

These cases were detected through genome sequencing effort of INSACOG consortium of 37 laboratories established by the Ministry of Health, DG ICMR Balram Bhargava said, adding that there was no need to panic.

Notably, the Karnataka health minister had earlier said the sample of one of the two recent South Africa returnees appeared “different from the Delta variant”.