Nine more including 3 kids test positive for Omicron in Jaipur; India's tally climbs to 21

Amid the growing tensions over the Omicron variant threat, India has reported nine more cases of the new Coronavirus strain in Jaipur on Sunday, December 5. According to reports, nine members of a family in Rajasthan’s Jaipur who had earlier tested positive for COVID after four of them arrived from South Africa, have tested positive for the new variant too. Out of the nine members who tested positive for the virus, 3 are children.

With this, the total cases of Omicron variant registered in India have surged to 21.

Jaipur family tests positive for Omicron

Earlier on December 3, the Health Department was put on alert after all 9 members of the family had tested positive for COVID. A state health official informed ANI that the people who returned from South Africa were hospitalized at Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS). The swab samples of the family were sent to Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Hospital for genome sequencing.

Providing details of the same, Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Narottam Sharma said to ANI that nine out of the 14 samples taken for testing from the family, tested positive for the Coronavirus infection. And further referring to the contact tracing, it was found that four of them had arrived in the state from South Africa.

According to the guidelines issued by Rajasthan state, 4 passengers who arrived from South Africa were isolated at the RUHS hospital while the other five were sent to home quarantine.

India records 21 Omicron cases

According to the Union Health Ministry, two men aged 66 years and 46 years old tested positive for the Omicron variant in Karnataka on Thursday, December 2. Following this, an NRI from Gujarat and a man from Maharashtra tested positive for Omicron on Saturday, December 4. 

Meanwhile, on Sunday, December 5, a 37-year-old man who landed in Delhi from Tanzania tested positive for the new COVID variant. He has been admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital after experiencing mild symptoms. Also, seven more people have tested positive for the Omicron variant in Maharashtra. 

COVID situation in Rajasthan

To date, Rajasthan has reported a total of 9,54,848 COVID cases with 8,955 deaths. As of December 5, the state has reported 21 new cases in the last 24 hours. The state has administered a total of 7,09,78,406 COVID-19 vaccine doses across 2,492 vaccination sites.

(Image: UNSPLASH)