Surat Businessman, Who Returned From South Africa, Tests Positive For Omicron Variant. Gujarat's Tally Reaches 4

The Omicron patient is a businessman from Surat and had arrived from South Africa on December 3. 

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New Delhi: India registered another case of Omicron variant of Covid 19 on Monday after a 42-year-old man from Gujarat who recently returned from South Africa tested Omicron positive making him the first such case from Surat and fourth in Gujarat.

According to a PTI report, the Omicron patient is a businessman from Surat and had arrived from South Africa on December 3. 

"He had arrived at Delhi airport from South Africa via Kenya and Abu Dhabi on December 3. He had tested negative for coronavirus," deputy Municipal Commissioner, Health, Ashish Naik said.

He again tested negative on December 4.

"After he was hospitalised briefly for isolation here, he tested positive for coronavirus on December 8, following which we sent his sample for genome sequencing. He was detected with the Omicron variant on Monday," Naik said.

The patient is under treatment in home isolation, the official said, adding that all his relatives and all the four co-passengers have tested negative for coronavirus.

Earlier, three cases of the Omicron variant infection were reported from Jamnagar in Gujarat, including a 72-year-old NRI man who had returned from Zimbabwe, his wife and brother-in-law.

On Monday, Maharashtra reported two more fully vaccinated people infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, with both having Dubai travel history. With the addition in cases in Maharashtra and Gujarat, India Omicron tally surged to 41 on Monday, according to a report by PTI. This comes after Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Chandigarh reported their first Omicron case.

With this, Omicron has been detected in Maharashtra (20), Rajasthan (9), Karnataka (3), Gujarat (4), Kerala (1) and Andhra Pradesh (1) and Union Territories of Delhi (2) and Chandigarh (1).