Mumbai: Dharavi has confirmed its first Omicron case on Friday, taking the number of confirmed cases of this new variant of COVID-19 in Maharashtra to 11. The patient has returned from Tanzania and is now admitted to the SevenHills Hospital in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
"The patient is asymptomatic and is not vaccinated; currently admitted at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai. Two people who had come to receive the patient have been traced as well," the BMC added.
Earlier in the day, the wife and brother-in-law of an NRI man, who had been found infected with the Omicron variant in Gujarat a week back, were also detected with the new strain, officials of the Jamnagar Municipal Corporation (JMC) said.
With this, Gujarat now has three patients of Omicron, classified as a 'variant of concern' by the WHO after it was detected in Africa last month.
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Genome sequencing of swab samples at the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) in Gandhinagar has established that both the COVID-19 patients were also infected with the Omicron variant, the officials said.
They were shifted to a special Omicron Ward created in the state-run Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital in the city, said a release by the JMC.
With this, the total Omicron cases in the country has jumped to 26. However, many of these patients have recovered.
