Third Case Of Omicron Reported In India, Zimbabwe Returnee Tests Positive In Gujarat's Jamnagar

The World Health Organization has designated the new strain as a Variant of Concern.

(Representative Image/Getty)

New Delhi: A 72-year-old man tested positive for the highly infectious Omicron variant of covid-19 in Jamnagar, Gujarat, after returning from Zimbabwe, an African country and one of the "at-risk" countries recognised by authorities, Gujarat Health officials said.

Earlier, the health officials had submitted his samples to Ahmedabad for genome sequencing in order to determine if he is infected with the Omicron form, according to Jamnagar municipal commissioner Vijaykumar Kharadi. In a result, he has been found positive for the Omicron variant of covid-19.

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#Gujarat registered first #OmicronVariant case after a #Zimbabwe resident, who arrived in Jamnagar, was found infected with #COVID19’s new mutant.

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- IANS (@IANS) 4 Dec 2021

"The man is a native of Jamnagar and has been living in Zimbabwe for the last many years. He arrived here on November 28 to meet his father-in-law. After he got a fever, his doctor advised him to get an RT-PCR test done. As mandated, the private laboratory informed us today that his report has come out positive for COVID-19," the civic chief was quoted by PTI in its report.

This is the third case of Omicron Variant in India. The other two instances were a 46-year-old fully vaccinated doctor from Bengaluru with no travel history who had signs of fever and body discomfort, and a 66-year-old South African national who arrived in India with a negative COVID-19 report.

The World Health Organization has designated the new strain as a Variant of Concern.

Omicron Variant Is Three Times More Likely To Induce Reinfections

According to early data from South African experts, where the variant was initially detected on November 24, it is three times more likely to induce reinfections than the Delta or Beta variants.

According to Red Cross chief Francesca Rocca, the appearance of Omicron was the "final indication" of the dangers of uneven worldwide immunisation rates.

South African physicians said there had been an increase in the number of children under the age of five brought to hospitals since the discovery of Omicron, but it was too early to tell if young children were particularly vulnerable.

"The incidence in those under-fives is now second-highest, and second only to the incidence in those over 60," Wassila Jassat from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said.