India’s Omicron tally at 23, Mumbai reports 2 more cases

Two more cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 were reported in Maharashtra’s Mumbai on Monday, taking the total tally of the new Covid-19 variant in Maharashtra to 10 and the total number of infections in the country to 23.

A 37-year-old man who arrived in Mumbai from South Africa and his 36-year-old female friend who landed in the city from the United States have both tested positive for Omicron. As per the Maharashtra government, both the patients displayed no symptoms and were vaccinated with Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.

Until now, five high-risk and 315 low-risk contacts of the patients have been traced. Further tracing is currently underway, the state government said. The first two cases of Omicron variant were reported in the country in Karnataka, followed by one in Gujarat’s Jamnagar and then another in Maharashtra’s Dombivili. On Sunday, seven cases were reported in Maharashtra’s Pune district, of which six belonged to the same family.

In Jaipur, nine cases of the Omicron variant were confirmed. On 5 December, Delhi reported its first case of Omicrona man who arrived from Tanzania was found infected with Omicron admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital in the national capital.

Meanwhile, a day after a picture of passengers at Delhi Airport queuing up for Covid-19 test upon arrival went viral on social media platforms, the airport authorities have decided to take additional measures to decongest the premises by adding 20 more kiosks. “The additional 20 sample-collection desks will help to decongest the airport premises. The facility will be available for only passengers who have opted for online booking of Covid-19 test,” said the official.

The Delhi government on Monday issued a show-cause notice to Etihad Airways for the alleged violation of guidelines for international arrivals issued by the Centre related to Omicron. “ The statement further added, “Non-compliance shall be viewed seriously, and it would be presumed that the manager has nothing to say in the matter and action as deemed fit shall be in relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005; Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the other applicable laws.” Nodal Incharge at the airport, Vasant Vihar SDM has issued notice for two flights of Etihad Airlines.

A report from Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, said that with 22 new Covid-19 cases in Chikkamagaluru’s Jawahar Navodaya School were reported on Monday; the total tally in the school went up to 101.