West Bengal Reports First Case Of Omicron Variant, 7-Year-Old Boy Tests Positive

The parents of the child have, however, tested negative for the infection. The family resides in Farakka town of the state’s Murshidabad district.

(File Photo/ Getty Images)

New Delhi: West Bengal on Wednesday reported its first Omicron case as a seven-year-old boy, who arrived from Hyderabad via Abu Dhabi, was infected with the new Covid-19 variant.

The parents of the child have, however, tested negative for the infection. The family resides in Farakka town of the state’s Murshidabad district.

The child, presently in home isolation, will be admitted to the hospital.

“They were tested at the Kolkata airport. The area (Farakka) in which they reside will be declared as a strict containment zone following the Covid rules,” Murshidabad Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) Sandip Sanyal said.

Earlier, two cases of the Omicron variant were reported at the Hyderabad airport after a Kenya national and one from Somalia arrived in the city.

With these fresh cases, the Omicron tally has reportedly increased to 65 in the country.

Earlier on Tuesday, eight more patients were found infected with the Omicron variant in Maharashtra.

Earlier in the day, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry said India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 134.61 crore, adding more than 68 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours.

The Health Ministry said the recovery of 8,168 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to 3,41,46,931.

“Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.38%, highest since March 2020,” the ministry said in a release.

The Health Ministry further said 6,984 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours in the country.