Tamil Nadu Reports First Omicron Case As Nigeria Returnee Tests Positive, India Tally Touches 73

A 47-year-old man who returned to Chennai from Nigeria tested positive for Omicron. Currently, the person and six others associated with him are kept under isolation at Guindy King's Institute.

(Representative Image/Getty)

Chennai: Tamil Nadu has reported its first case of Covid-19's Omicron variant on Wednesday. According to Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian, the person infected with the new mutant of Coronavirus is a Nigeria returnee. 

A 47-year-old man who returned to Chennai from Nigeria tested positive for Omicron. Currently, the person and six others associated with him are kept under isolation at Guindy King's Institute.

The passenger who arrived in Chennai from Nigeria via Doha on December 10 had tested Covid-19 positive and even six of his family members too had tested positive. Later, the man was found infected with the new mutant.

"In the initial level of testing of their sampling, there was S-gene drop raising the suspicion of being infected by Omicron. Now, we have received the results sent from the National Institute of Virology. The passenger has tested positive for Omicron," Subramanian told reporters.

"With the result of the passenger confirmed, we suspect six of his family members, along with a 16-year-old child, also to be positive (for Omicron). We received the result confirming Omicron variant of the passenger a few minutes back," he said.

Four more cases of Omicron were detected in Kerala. Two of the four news cases were the wife and mother-in-law of the Ernakulam native who was the first person in Kerala to test positive for the new variant.

With these, India's Omicron tally surged to 73 with Maharashtra having 32 cases, Rajasthan 17 and Delhi 6. States like Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala and now Tamil Nadu also have seen cases of Omicron variant.