India's Omicron tally rises to 33: Tracing Covid-19's new variant in various states

The variant, which has led to widespread concerns regarding its contagiousness, has rattled the health community which is fearing the strain could be more transmissible and dangerous than Covid-19's previous strains that caused earlier waves of the ongoing pandemic.

India's tally for Coronavirus's new variant, Omicron, climbed to 33 on Saturday after a fully vaccinated person who travelled to Zimbabwe and South Africa before coming to Delhi tested positive for the new strain in the national capital.

India's Omicron tally rises to 33: Tracing Covid's new variant in various states (Representational image)

The variant, which has led to widespread concerns regarding its contagiousness, has rattled the health community which is fearing the strain could be more transmissible and dangerous than Covid-19's previous strains that caused earlier waves of the ongoing pandemic.

Here's a list of states in India where the new variant of Covid-19 has been reported so far:

Delhi: The national capital has reported two cases of the variant so far. The first case was detected in a 37-year-old fully vaccinated man who came from Tanzania last Sunday. The patient is a resident of Ranchi and travelled from Tanzania to Doha and from there he came to Delhi on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2.

The second case came to light on Saturday after a fully vaccinated individual with a travel history to Zimbabwe and South Africa tested positive for the new variant of the coronavirus. He is being treated at the LNJP hospital and has only weakness as confirmed by an official to news agency PTI.

Maharashtra: The tally of Omicron variant infections in the state stands at 17, according to the state health department bulletin.

Maharashtra reported seven new cases of Omicron on Friday including in a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler. Of the seven cases, three were reported in Mumbai, four from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.

The three new patients from Mumbai were all men, aged 48, 25, and 37 years with a recent history of travel to Tanzania, the UK, and South Africa, respectively.

Rajasthan: Last Sunday, the state's health department said a total of nine cases of Covid-19 Omicron variant have been reported in Rajasthan's Jaipur.

All the nine patients were later discharged from a government hospital they were admitted to after testing negative for the infection twice, health minister Parsadi Lal Meena said.

Gujarat: The state has registered three cases of the Omicron variant of Coronavirus so far. Gujarat's first Omicron case was reported in a 72-year-old Zimbabwe-based NRI who came to Jamnagar last week. Later, two of his contacts tested positive for the new strain.

All three Omicron patients in the state are stable and asymptomatic. Their treatment is going on in the hospital, municipal commissioner Vijaykumar Kharadi told news agency ANI.

Karnataka: On Monday, Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar said only two cases of Omicron have been found in the state and the genomic sequencing analysis report of the rest are awaited.

Karnataka's first case of the new variant was detected after a South African who landed in Bengaluru on November 20 tested positive but left the country three days later based on a negative Covid-19 test report. He was also India’s first-known Omicron patient.