Chennai: India on Sunday reported 17 more cases of Omicron, taking the total number of cases in the country to 21. Maharashtra reported seven more cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19, Jaipur reported nine and Delhi reported the national capital’s first case.
Meanwhile, the US and the UK introduced new Covid testing rules for inbound passengers, including ones from India, amid the Omicron scare around the globe.
Maharashtra’s Pune district found seven Omicron cases: a 44-year-old woman from Lagos in Nigeria, who is visiting her brother in Pimpri-Chinchwad, and her two daughters.
Her 45-year-old brother and his two daughters have Omicron too. Separately, a 47-year-old man, who had recently travelled to Finland, tested positive for the variant in Pune.
Delhi reported its first case of Omicron: an Indian-origin man visiting the city from Tanzania. Last week, Omicron cases were found in Maharashtra’s Dombivli, Gujarat, and Karnataka.
The central government has put in place strict travel restrictions on people arriving from abroad, especially from countries identified as ‘at risk’.
The emergence of the new strain of coronavirus has also dented India’s plans to restart international travel from 15 December.
The Union government has urges State governments to intensify screening and other related activities to further check the spread of the new variant.