India detects third Omicron case. What we know so far
The patient, who tested positive for Omicron, is a 72-year old man of Indian origin who has lived in Zimbabwe for decades and came to India last month, officials said.
India reported its third case of the Omicron on Saturday days after two people were found infected with the latest strain of the coronavirus in Karnataka, government officials said.
The latest case of Omicron, marked as a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization (WHO), comes on a day India reported 8,603 new Covid-19 cases, taking the country’s tally to 34.62 million.
Gujarat's commissioner of health Jai Prakash Shivhare confirmed the man has tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
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Officials in Gujarat said the patient, who tested positive for Omicron, is a 72-year old man of Indian origin who has lived in Zimbabwe for decades and came to India last month.
The health department said on Saturday the 72-year-old man has been found infected with the Omicron in Jamnagar of Gujarat, days after he came to the state from Zimbabwe, a high-risk country.
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European countries, including the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel are the countries designated as "at-risk" by the Centre.
Officials said the man arrived in Gujarat from Zimbabwe on November 28 and tested positive for coronavirus on December 2, after which his sample was sent for genome sequencing.
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Jamnagar municipal commissioner Vijaykumar Kharadi said the man’s sample was sent to Ahmedabad for genome sequencing to ascertain whether he was infected with the Omicron variant.
The man, who hails from Jamnagar, has been living in Zimbabwe for the last many years. He arrived in the state to meet his father-in-law. After he got a fever, his doctor advised him to get an RT-PCR test done.
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The private laboratory on Thursday informed the civic authorities that his report has come out positive for COVID-19, he said.
Jamnagar municipal commissioner Kharadi said the man has been shifted to the isolation ward at the Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital.
According to officials, district authorities have already started his tracing his contact as per protocols.
