Toddler among 9 new Omicron cases in India; Tally up at 32

As of Friday, 2,936 Omicron cases have been detected from 59 countries, with 78,064 Covid-19 positive cases being under investigation.

India has reported 32 cases of Omicron after seven new infections of the highly mutated variant of the coronavirus were detected in Maharashtra and two more in Gujarat, according to officials.

There had been no new case of the Omicron variant in the country for the past three days.  (AFP File Photo/Representative Image)

There had been no new case of the Omicron variant in the country for the past three days. Now, the cases have been reported in four states and one Union Territory with 17 in Maharashtra, nine in Rajasthan, three in Gujarat, two in Karnataka and one in Delhi.

Maharashtra reported seven new cases of Omicron, including a three-and-half-year-old girl, on Friday which took the tally of such infections to 17, the state health department said.

“As per the recent report from the National Institute of Virology, seven new Omicron cases have been reported in the state—three from Mumbai and four from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation,” an official release said.

Among the seven new Omicron patients, four have been fully vaccinated, the release said.

“One patient has received a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine while one patient has not been vaccinated. Another patient is three-and-half-year-old and not eligible for vaccination," it said.

Omicron cases in Maharashtra

According to the release, the three Omicron patients in Mumbai are all men, aged 48, 37 and 25 with recently came back from Tanzania, the UK and South Africa-Nairobi, respectively.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said the man who returned from Tanzania was a resident of the densely-populated Dharavi slum area, but he was asymptomatic and isolated before he mingled in the community.

The Dharavi resident, who is not vaccinated, tested positive for Covid-19 on December 4 and has mild symptoms, according to the release. His two close contacts tested negative for Covid-19.

The 37-year-old Gujarat resident tested positive to Covid-19 on December 4 after arrival. BMC said the fully vaccinated man was shifted to the hospital directly from the airport and he has mild symptoms.

The 25-year-old man, who returned from London, tested positive for Covid-19 on December 1 and has no symptoms. He has taken both doses of the vaccine.

Omicron cases in Pune

The other four new Omicron patients were reported from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in the Pune district. All of them are contacts of three women who arrived from Nigeria and were found to have Omicron infection earlier, the release said.

Four of the new patients were asymptomatic while the other three have only mild symptoms, it added.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said five out of seven Omicron patients in the Pune district have now tested negative for the infection.

Omicron cases in Gujarat

Two more cases of Omicron was confirmed in Gujarat's Jamnagar on Friday after two contacts of the non-resident Indian (NRI) man, who was the first case of the state, tested positive for the new variant.

Jamnagar municipal commissioner Vijaykumar Kharadi told news agency ANI all the three Omicron patients in the state are stable and asymptomatic and they are being treated at a hospital.

The 72-year-old Zimbabwe-based NRI tested positive for Omicron after he came to Jamnagar last week. His wife and brother-in-law tested positive for Covid-19 and their samples were sent for genome sequencing. Other family members and contacts have not tested positive for the viral infection.