Omicron: 73-year-old man succumbs to latest variant; doctor says 'Post-COVID death'

As the Omicron variant tally across India has climbed to 1,270, a 73-year-old man from Udaipur, who tested positive for COVID-19's "variant of concern" on 15 December, succumbed to the virus on Friday. However, the authorities have refrained from deeming it as COVID-19-death as the person in concern had tested negative twice later. 

"A 73-year-old man who was tested positive for COVID's Omicron strain on 15 December, died today. Later, he was tested negative two times, so this will not be called a COVID death but a post-Covid death," Dr Dinesh Kharadi Chief Medical and Health Officer Udaipur Division told ANI.

India's Omicron tally crosses 1000

Reporting fresh 309 cases of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, its total tally has climbed to 1,270. While Maharashtra reports the highest number of cases at 450, it stands on the top. Maharashtra is followed by Delhi with 320 cases, Kerala with 109 cases, Gujarat with 97 cases, Rajasthan with 69 cases, and Telangana with 62 cases.  

So far, a total of 23 states and union territories have reported cases of Omicron further contributing more to the regular COVID-19 count. Also, the sudden spike in infections has raised concern among the Centre and the state governments prompting them to take necessary actions to address the issue. As a part of it, night curfews, fresh guidelines, and restrictions have also been imposed ahead of the new year celebrations. 

COVID-19 tally across India

India reported fresh 16,764 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the country's coronavirus tally to 34,838,804. Apart from this, the number of Omicron cases has also risen to 1,270 with Maharashtra and Delhi leading the charts, informed the Union IHealth Ministry on Friday. Also, an increase of 8,959 active cases has been recorded in the span of 24 hours further increasing the active COVID-19 caseload. 

Meanwhile, a total of 220 fatalities have also been reported in the last 24 hours followed by 7,585 recoveries taking the death and recovery toll to 4,81,080 and 3,42,66,363 respectively. 

While the active caseload stands at 91,361, it constitutes 0.26 of the total COVID-19 cases.