JAIPUR/ PUNE: India’s tally of confirmed Covid-19 cases linked to the newly
discovered Omicron variant shot up five times overnight as nine people in Rajasthan,
including a four-member NRI family from South Africa, seven in Maharashtra’s Pune and one
in Delhi tested positive for that strain of the virus. The total count currently stands at 21.
As of Saturday, the tally was four, after Maharashtra and Gujarat reported a case each to add
to the two detected first in Karnataka. Delhi’s first Covid patient found to have been infected with the Omicron variant is a 33-yearold man who returned from Tanzania recently. Sources said the fully vaccinated patient is being treated at Lok Nayak Hospital.
Of the nine cases confirmed in Jaipur, health officials are worried about a spurt in infections
within a cluster of people linked to the four-member family from South Africa. Chief medical
health officer (Jaipur-I) Dr Narrottam Sharma said the family attended a family wedding in the
city on November 28 that was attended by around 100 guests. The groom is from Sikar and
bride from Karkardooma in Delhi. “We have informed the Delhi health department about it.” A
relative of the family was the first to test positive for Covid, followed by four other members of
the household.
In the Pune Metropolitan Region, a 44-year-old woman of Indian origin from Nigeria and her
two daughters – aged 12 and 17 – tested positive after travelling to Pimpri Chinchwad from
the African country via Mumbai on November 24. Three of their contacts, including the
woman’s brother and his two kids, and a 47-year-old man who had travelled to Pune from
Finland via Mumbai on November 26 are among the seven confirmed Omicron cases, state
health officials said on Sunday.
Four immediate family members of the Finland-returned man, who is asymptomatic and in
home isolation, have since tested negative. All the adults who have tested positive are
vaccinated. Sanjay Patil, chairman of the Indian Medical Association’s Hospital Board of India
in Pune, said the fact that none of them had developed severe symptoms was “very
reassuring”.
