Delhi's first omicron case in traveller from Tanzania, India's 5th: reports

Delhi has reported its first case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, according to some news reports. Quoting state health minister Satyendar Jain, The Indian Express reported that an Indian-origin man had visited Delhi from Tanzania some few days ago and tested positive for the new variant that originated in South Africa. With this, India has five confirmed cases of Omicron, with one each in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Delhi and two in Karnataka.

The country reported a single-day rise of 2,796 deaths on Sunday after Bihar reconciled its Covid data. This pushed the overall death toll to 473,326, the report added.

The country also reported 8,895 new infections, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday. India’s total tally of Covid-19 cases has increased to 34.63 million, according to the data updated at 8 am.

In Mumbai, a 33-year-old traveller from South Africa was found to be infected on Saturday. A 72-year-old NRI who flew in from Zimbabwe on November 28 became Gujarat’s first case. The first two cases of Omicron were reported from Bengaluru, of whom one flew out of the country.