Covid-19: Fourth case of Omicron variant in India detected in Maharashtra

Earlier in the day, a man who returned from Zimbabwe was found infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Gujarat's Jamnagar, the state health department said, in the third case of the strain in India.

According to an official, he had not been able to take the vaccine as he had been in the sea for months, working as a marine engineer, PTI reported.

On November 24, he complained of mild fever after landing in Mumbai and is being treated at a Covid care facility in Kalyan-Dombivali.

Officials traced 12 of the passenger's high-risk contacts and 23 low-risk contacts and none of them have tested positive for Covid-19.

Further, 25 of his co-passengers from the Delhi-Mumbai flight were also tested and all have also tested negative. More contacts are currently being traced.

Maharashtra government has said that a 60-year-old man, who had arrived from Zambia, hasn't been infected with the Omicron variant. Instead, he has been found to be infected with a sub-lineage of the Delta variant.

The first two cases in India are of a 46-year-old fully vaccinated doctor from Bengaluru, who had no travel history and developed symptoms of fever and body ache, and a 66-year-old South African national who came to India with a negative COVID-19 report.

India has stepped up testing and surveillance of international passengers from "at risk" countries after South Africa detected the Omicron strain of coronavirus.

Omicron has been classified as a "variant of concern" by the WHO and is said to be more infectious than the Delta variant.

More than two dozen nations including India have now detected cases of the variant, which has put the world's recovery from the lingering pandemic in doubt as several countries across continents have imposed travel curbs to prevent its spread.