India’s Omicron count at 415, Maharashtra crosses 100-mark

The country’s Omicron count surged to 415 on Saturday as Maharashtra crossed the 100 mark, Rajasthan recorded its highest single-day spike of 21 cases that took its total to 49, and Karnataka and Gujarat reported seven and six new infections of the coronavirus variant.
The new cases in Karnataka are from Bengaluru, including a 15-year-old who came from the US on December 20.Except for the teenager, the others are fully vaccinated. The state’s case-count of the variant has now gone up to 38. According to health minister K Sudhakar, all primary and secondary contacts of these patients have been tracked, traced and tested.
In Bengal, a 23-year-old intern of Medical College Hospital Kolkata has tested positive for Omicron, becoming the first case with no recent history of international travel. Another case was confirmed on Saturday — a 45-year-old-man who came from Tanzania on Tuesday. The state’s Omicron tally now stands at seven.
Tamil Nadu is bracing for a surge as at least 54 doctors, nurses and medical students tested positive on Saturday — of them, 39 had the S-gene drop, an indicator they could be carrying the Omicron variant. Their report is awaited.
In Gujarat, three Omicron infections were reported from Kheda, two from Ahmedabad and one from Rajkot, taking the state’s count to 49. Telangana’s caseload climbed to 41, with three more Omicron infections. Maharashtra reported two new Omicron cases, pushing its tally to 110, according to the health department.
In Rajasthan, of the 21 new Omicron cases, 11 were from Jaipur, six from Ajmer, three from Udaipur and one person who has come from Maharashtra. UP reported its third Omicron case on Saturday after a photographer from Rae Bareli tested positive for the new variant after her return from the US.