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A health official takes a swab sample for COVID-19 testing. (Photo credit: PTI)
Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh recorded their first cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Sunday.
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that eight cases of Omicron have been found in Indore.
“Eight Omicron cases have been found in Indore. Out of these patients, six have recovered and have been discharged while two are undergoing treatment,” Mishra told reporters.
Mishra said around 3,000 people recently returned to Indore from abroad, and 26 of them were found to be infected with COVID-19.
“Omicron was confirmed in the genome sequencing of eight of these people,” he said.
According to officials, the samples of these people, who returned to Indore from different countries, were taken between December 17 and 21.
The infected people included two men aged 20 and 30 years, who came from New York on December 14 and 19, respectively. Officials said the other six were, a 23-year-old woman who arrived from London on December 14, two women aged 33 and 26 who returned from Tanzania (east Africa) on December 19, a 33-year-old woman who returned from Ghana (west Africa) on December 17, and two men aged 26 and 31 years, who arrived from Dubai on December 13 and 18 respectively, they said.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh reported one case of Omicron in a foreign returnee. The person had returned from Canada on December 18. According to the health department, the patient’s latest RTPCR is negative, and her three close contacts have also tested negative.
India’s Omicron tally has reached 437 on Sunday as Odisha recorded another four cases, and Andhra Pradesh detected two more infections.
