Delhi reports second case of Omicron COVID variant

Delhi on Saturday reported its second case of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus. State Health Minister Satyendar Jain had confirmed the first case of the new strain last Saturday.

Genome sequencing of sample collected from a traveller who had landed in Delhi from Zimbabwe this week had the Omicron variant.

As per the patient's travel history, he had travelled to South Africa recently. The patient has been admitted to Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP), where a separate ward has been created for Omicron patients.

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Genome sequencing of 27 foreign travellers admitted to the hospital has been done so far, of which 25 samples were found to be negative, whereas Omicron has been detected in the samples of two people, according to an official statement.

With this, the overall count of Omicron cases in India has jumped to 33. As of Friday, 32 reported cases of the new variant have been registered in the country after seven new infections of Omicron were identified in Maharashtra and two more in Gujarat.

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