India on Wednesday recorded the first death linked to the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Rajasthan's Udaipur, confirmed the Union health ministry.

"Technically it is Omicron-related death (on the Rajasthan case). He was an elderly person. The person is reported to have comorbidities, like diabetes among others," said Luv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry.

According to news agency PTI, a 73-year-old man, who was found infected with Omicron in genome sequencing and who had tested negative for the infection twice, died in a Udaipur hospital on December 31.

He died due to post-Covid pneumonia coupled with comorbidities -- diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypothyroidism -- Udaipur Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Dinesh Kharadi had said.

The man was found Covid positive on December 15 and had symptoms like fever, cough and rhinitis and therefore, was admitted to the hospital.

A sample was sent for genome sequencing and the results were received on December 25, in which he was found infected with the Omicron variant of the virus. The man had tested negative for COVID-19 twice on December 21 and 25.

Meanwhile, IGMR's Dr Balram Bhargava said Omicron is the predominant circulating strain in the cities in the country. Mass gatherings should be avoided to lower the speed of this spread, he added.

The Union Health Ministry has said that India has reported more than 6.3 times increase in cases in the last 8 days. A sharp increase has been seen in case positivity from 0.79% on 29th Dec 2021 to 5.03% on 5th January 2022, the ministry said.

The states of concern are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Gujarat where there has been a rise in cases. 28 districts in the country are reporting more than 10% weekly positivity, it added.