India’s Omicron count rises to 145

Indiarsquos Omicron COVID count rose to 145 on Sunday after a 45yearold NRI and a teenage boy who recently arrived in Gujarat from the United Kingdom tested positive for the variantAccording to central and state officials omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territoriesmdashMaharashtra 48 Delhi 22 Rajasthan 17 and Karnataka 14 Telangana 20 Gujarat 9 Kerala 11 Andhra Pradesh 1 Chandigarh 1 Tamil Nadu 1 and West Bengal 1On Saturday Maharashtra had reported eight more cases Telanganarsquos tally jumped from eight to 20 while Karnataka and Kerala reported six and four cases respectivelyIn Gujarat the nonresident Indian tested positive for the Coronavirus infection in the RTPCR test carried out at the Ahmedabad international airport soon after he arrived from the UK on December 15 a health department official said on SundayldquoThe manrsquos sample was later found infected with the Omicron variantrdquo Anand district health officer Dr M T Chhari said The patient was scheduled to reach the statersquos Anand city from AhmedabadldquoBut after he tested positive for the Coronavirus he was taken to the Ahmedabad civil hospital from the airport The patient is currently recovering at the Ahmedabad civil hospitalrdquo Dr Chhari saidHis copassengers and other contacts have tested negative for the viral infection the official said A 15yearold boy from Gandhinagar was also detected with the Omicron variant after returning from the UK Gandhinagar Municipal Commissioner Dhaval Patel saidMaharashtra on Saturday reported eight new infections which took the total of such cases in the state to 48 Twentyeight of these patients have already recovered or have been discharged it said Of the six cases reported in Karnataka on Saturday one was a passenger from the UK while five others were from COVID19 clusters in two educational institutions in Dakshina Kannada districtIn Kerala the two cases of the new variant were detected from Thiruvananthapuram in patients aged 17 and 44 One case was detected in Malappuram in a person aged 37 and another was a 49yearold patient from ThrissurAll vaxxed in Andaman and NicobarPort Blair Andaman and Nicobar Islands have achieved 100 per cent double dose vaccination of its target beneficiaries The administration said it was the first among the states and Union territories to achieve the feat using only Covishield Vaccination was extremely challenging as the UT is spread over 836 islands said the administrationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever