Chennai: A total of five new cases of the Omicron variant of Sars-Cov-2 were reported across India — one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra – on Sunday, taking the national tally of the heavily mutated variant to 38.
With Omicron entering neighbouring States of Andhra, Kerala and Karnataka, Tamilnadu Chief Minister M K Stalin is chairing a key meeting with top officials today on extension of Covid-19 restrictions. ‘Important decisions will be taken at the meeting’ sources said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the new Omicron coronavirus strain has been found in 63 countries and will surpass the Delta variant in spreading speed.
The WHO also said it is not clear yet, why the new strain is spreading so fast and that the Omicron variant might reduce the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines. But it is less dangerous than Delta, it added.
In Andhra Pradesh, a 34-year old foreign traveler who came from Ireland, also became the first patient in the state to test positive for the new variant. The person, who first landed in Mumbai, was tested and found negative for Covid-19. He was then allowed to travel onward to Visakhapatnam on 27 November.
‘On conducting a second RT-PCR test in Vizianagaram, he tested positive for Covid-19. His sample was then sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad for genome sequencing and the result came out as Omicron positive,’ the Public Health Director said in a release.