Covid-19: Odisha reports 24 more Omicron cases, tally mounts to 61

With 24 more people testing positive for Omicron in Odisha, the tally of the COVID-19 variant in the state increased to 61 on Wednesday, an official said.

The cases were detected from 218 samples sent for genome sequencing. Five among the affected had foreign travel history, while the remaining 19 have been infected by local contacts, Ajay Parida, the director of Institute of Life Science here said.

Of the 23 cases detected earlier, seven cases were from Keonjhar district, four from Khurda, three each from Puri and Sambalpur, two each from Boudh and Angul and one each from Jagatsinghpur and Balasore, officials said.

On December 21 two cases of Omicron were detected in Odisha for the first time, another two were detected on December 23, four on December 26, one on December 29, five on December 30 and 23 on January 2, they said.

A woman and her two daughters who had tested positive for the Omicron variant after their return from Nigeria, have recovered and have been discharged after being treated at the SUM COVID Hospital here.

The state's COVID-19 tally has increased to 10,57,876 after 1216 more people tested positive for the infection on Wednesday, the officials said.