Covid-19: Mumbai reports 2 more cases of Omicron; Maharashtra tally surges to 10

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that both the infected patients are fully vaccinated and are asymptomatic. A 37-year-old man, who landed in Mumbai from South Africa on November 25, was found infected with Omicron along with one of his contacts – a 36-year-old female friend who arrived in the city from the US the same day. For now, the patients have been admitted to BMC-run Seven Hills Hospital in suburban Mumbai.

The BMC said it carried out COVID-19 tests on all the close contacts of the two travellers, but none of them tested positive for the infection. The civic body has been carrying out COVID-19 tests on international travellers arriving in Mumbai since November 1. So far, 16 travellers – 12 males and four females – have tested positive for COVID-19.

Swab samples of all of them were sent for genome sequencing and one of them (37-year-old returnee from South Africa) was found infected with Omicron, the civic body said. Similarly, nine close contacts of the travellers – four males and five females – tested positive Covid-19, and one of them (South Africa returnee’s female friend) was found infected with the new variant.

Several cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been detected in the country with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Delhi reporting new cases.

The first two cases of the Omicron variant were reported in the country in Karnataka, followed by one in Gujarat’s Jamnagar and then another in Maharashtra’s Dombivili.

Earlier, seven persons, including a non-resident Indian (NRI) woman and her two daughters from Nigeria, had tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus in the Pune district. With these seven patients from Pune and three from the MMR, Maharashtra has now reported 10 cases of the new variant. Overall, India’s caseload of the new coronavirus variant has surged to 23 as of December 6.