India currently has 38 cases of Omicron spread across several states. On Sunday, five fresh cases were reported in Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra while Kerala also got its first Omicron infection.
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has spread to several states in India, with Maharashtra and Rajasthan reporting the highest cases at 18 and 9 respectively.
India currently has 38 cases of Omicron spread across several states. On Sunday, five fresh cases were reported in Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra while Kerala also got its first Omicron infection.
How many states have Omicron in India?
The latest patient to test positive for the virus on Sunday was a 40-year-old returnee from Burkina Faso, a West African nation, who tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Nagpur. The latest case takes the total number of Omicron infections reported in Maharashtra to 18, the highest in the country.
Before Maharashtra, Chandigarh and Andhra Pradesh reported their first Omicron cases on Sunday as well.
Sunday's additions take the total number of states and UTs with Omicron cases in India to eight. These include Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. On Sunday, Kerala became the latest state to report its first Omicron case when an Ernakulam resident who had recently tested positive for Covid-19 after his return from the United Kingdom tested Omicron positive.
With 18 patients, Maharashtra has the highest number of Omicron cases in India, followed by Rajasthan which has nine cases and Gujarat with three. Karnataka also has three cases while Delhi has two. Andhra and Chandigarh have reported one case each.
How Omicron spread across states
The Omicron variant was first detected in India in Bengaluru with two people testing positive for it comprising a South African national of Indian origin and a doctor.
In Karnataka, the third case of Omicron was detected after a 34-year-old man returning from South Africa tested positive on Sunday.
In Chandigarh, a 20-year-old man who had returned from Italy and was visiting his family tested positive for Omicron after genome sequencing, becoming the first Omicron case in the Union Territory. According to reports, the patient was asymptomatic and had been fully vaccinated with the Pizer Covid-19 vaccine in Italy. His seven family members who were deemed "high-risk" for coming in contact with the patient have all tested negative for the virus.
Andhra Pradesh got its first Omicron patient after a flyer who first tested negative upon landing in Mumbai, tested positive for Covid-19 upon his arrival at Vishakhapatnam. A second RT-PCR test confirmed a positive report after which the man was tested for Omicron. The man, however, tested negative for Covid-19 upon a retest.
On Saturday, Delhi had reported its second Omicron case - a 35-year-old man with travel history to Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Covid-19 cases in India
While India's active caseload has been dropping, the country continues to record thousands of new Covid-19 cases every day. In the last 24 hours, 7,774 people have tested positive for Covid-19 across states. India currently has 92,281 active Covid-19 cases, the lowest in 560 days. 306 fresh deaths also took, taking the covid-19 death toll to 4,75,434.
Nevertheless, the rate of the daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 45 days now. The national Covid-19 recovery rate has also picked up. According to the Health Ministry, the recovery rate is 98.36 per cent at present, the highest since March 2020.
(With inputs from PTI)