Four more Omicron infections detected in Kerala, tally reaches 15

Four more new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus were detected from Kerala on Monday, taking the overall tally to 15, the state health department said.

Two cases of the new variant were detected in patients aged 41 and 67. They are mother and grandmother of a 17-year-old patient in Thiruvananthapuram who came from the UK on December 9 along with his father, mother and sister.

His grandmother was in the contact list.

Two other cases of the Omicron variant were detected from Thiruvananthapuram -- a 32-year old man came from Nigeria on December 17 and a 27 year-old woman who was included in the contact list of a flight passengers. She came came from the UK on December 12.

The new variant was confirmed in the testing conducted at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology here.

The state had detected its first Omicron case on December 12 in Ernakulam district when a person who had returned from the UK tested positive.