LIVE: COVID-19, new variant news in India - Omicron cases jump to 101

According to Reuters, India has detected a total of 101 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, said a health ministry official on Friday, adding that some districts were showing a rise in overall infections relative to tests. Here are all the LIVE updates:- 

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Omicron, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, has caught the attention of the government as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed it as a variant of concern. According to Manindra Agarwal, IIT scientist involved in the mathematical projection of trajectory of COVID-19, the third wave of coronavirus could hit the peak by February with cases likely to be reaching up to 1-1.5 lakh a day due to Omicron. However, it will be milder than the second wave, he told to PTI.

“With the new variant, our current forecast is that the country could see the third wave by February but it will be milder than the second wave. So far, we have seen that the severity of Omicron is not like the one seen in the Delta variant,” PTI said in a report quoting Agarwal.

Here are the updates from India:-

4.50 PM: India has detected a total of 101 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, a health ministry official said on Friday, adding some districts were showing a rise in overall infections relative to tests, as per a Reuters report. 

3.15 PM: Two more Omicron cases have been reported in Telangana, taking the total number of cases of the new coronavirus variant recorded at the city's international airport to nine, a health official said on Friday, as per a PTI report. 
The nine includes a boy from West Bengal who flew to Kolkata with his family members without entering the city after his samples were collected at the international airport.
Observing that all the eight cases in the state were passengers who arrived from abroad, state Director of Public Health G Srinivasa Rao said neither community transmission nor locals testing positive for Omicron occurred in Telangana so far.
One of the positive cases is a woman who came from the UK and belongs to Hanumakonda at Warangal in Telangana.
She had tested negative in the test conducted at Hyderabad airport, but found positive for COVID-19 when tested after eight days of home quarantine.
Genome sequencing of samples collected from her revealed her to be positive for Omicron, the official said.
The Telangana government is fully geared up to deal with a third wave if it occurs, he said.
The government has made arrangements to treat over 60,000 patients at the same time in the state.
He appealed to the people not to panic over Omicron as the treatment protocols and others remain the same.
He stressed on the importance of vaccination and following COVID-appropriate behaviour to effectively deal with the virus.

2.55 PM: A Zimbabwe-based NRI man, his wife and brother-in-law, who were found infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Jamnagar city of Gujarat earlier this month, have now tested negative for the infection and were given discharge from a hospital here, officials said on Friday, as per a PTI report. 
They were the first three patients of Omicron variant in Gujarat, which later reported two more such cases - one in Surat and another in Mehsana.
"All the three Omicron patients have recovered from the infection. Their latest COVID-19 tests gave negative results, following which the trio was given discharge from the hospital. The Omicron ward is now empty," said Dr Saugata Chatterjee, nodal officer for COVID-19 at the government-run G G Hospital in Jamnagar city.
On December 4, genome sequencing had established that the 72-year-old NRI man, who arrived here from Zimbabwe, one of the 'at-risk' countries, had contracted the Omicron variant of COVID-19. It was the first case of the new strain in Gujarat.
The elderly man had taken both the doses of a Chinese vaccine in Zimbabwe. When his RT-PCR test came positive, authorities kept him in an isolation ward and sent his samples for genome sequencing.
Two days later, his wife, who had come with him from Zimbabwe, and his brother-in-law, who lives in Jamnagar, had also tested positive for coronavirus. On December 10, genome sequencing had established that they were also infected with the Omicron variant.
Now, Gujarat has two active cases of the new strain - a 42-year-old businessman undergoing treatment in Surat and a 41-year-old woman health worker admitted to GMERS hospital in Vadnagar, Mehsana district.

2.50 PM: Arunachal Pradesh on Friday reported just one new COVID-19 case, four less than the previous day, with the tally rising to 55,320, a health department official said, as per a PTI report. 
The fresh case was detected in Papum Pare district, State Surveillance Officer Dr Lobsang Jampa said.
No patient was cured of the disease in the last 24 hours, and the total number of recoveries in the northeastern state stood at 55,007.
The recovery rate among coronavirus patients remained at 99.43 per cent.
Arunachal Pradesh now has 33 active cases.
The Capital Complex Region, comprising Itanagar, Naharlagun, Nirjuli and Banderdewa areas, has the highest number of active cases at 19, followed by West Kameng and Namsai at four each, Tawang and East Siang at two each, Lohit and Papum Pare at one each.
The death toll remained at 280 as no fresh fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours, Jampa said.
Over 12.02 lakh samples, including 245 on Thursday, have been tested for COVID-19, and the positivity rate stood at 0.40 per cent.
State Immunisation Officer Dr Dimong Padung said 14,45,448 people have been inoculated so far.

2.45 PM: The union territory of Puducherry logged seven fresh COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours taking the overall tally to 1,29,292, a senior official of the Department of Health said on Friday.
The union territory had added 24 new infections on Thursday, as per PTI. 
Director of Health Department G Sriramulu said in a release that Puducherry accounted for six out of the seven new cases while Mahe recorded one. The Karaikal and Yanam regions did not not report any fresh infections.
The number of active cases stood at 177 which included 31 patients undergoing treatment in hospitals and remaining 146 in home isolation.
As many as 16 patients recovered and were discharged during the last 24 hours ending 10 AM Friday as the overall recoveries rose to 1,27,236.
No fresh fatality was reported from any of the four regions of Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam and the death toll remained at 1,879.
The Department of Health has so far tested 20,21,468 samples and has found 17,15,690 out of them to be negative.
The positivity rate was 0.36 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.45 per cent and 98.41 per cent respectively, the Director said.
The department has so far administered 13,32,507 doses which comprised 8,09,067 first doses and 5,23,440 second doses.

10.55 AM: Three passengers, who arrived in Goa from the United Kingdom on Friday morning, tested positive for coronavirus and their samples were sent for genome sequencing to know whether they are infected with the Omicron variant, a state minister said, as per a PTI report. 
In a tweet, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Friday said, "Three patients tested positive from a flight that arrived today morning from the UK. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing, reports awaited."
These three passengers arrived in the state in the 101st flight under the government's Vande Bharat Mission from London's Heathrow Airport, the Goa airport authorities said.
"101st VBM flight arrived from London @HeathrowAirport today morning at Goa Airport. Int'l Arrival pax undergoes thermal screening and complete exit formalities upon arrival. Team Goa striving to ensure for safe and smooth transit of pax," the Goa airport said in a tweet.
Information about the total number of passengers in the flight was not available.

9.20 AM: There have been 7,886 recoveries in the last 24 hours increasing the total recoveries to 3,41,62,765. India's active caseload stands at 86,415. The active cases account for less than 1 per cent of the total cases.

9.18 AM: 135.99 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified a new variant of SARS-CoV-2. It has been named as Omicron. The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus, WHO has informed.

The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24th November 2021. The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta variant.

It has to be noted that India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakhs on August 23, 40 lakhs on September 5 and 50 lakhs on September 16. It went past 60 lakhs on September 28, 70 lakhs on October 11, crossed 80 lakhs on October 29, 90 lakhs on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crores on June 2.