A 33-year-old Maharashtra man who recently returned from South Africa has tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the state health department confirmed on Saturday. This is the first case of the Omicron variant detected in Maharashtra and the fourth in the country.

A 33-year-old Maharashtra man who recently returned from South Africa has tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the state health department confirmed on Saturday. This is the first case of the Omicron variant detected in Maharashtra and the fourth in the country.

The Kalyan-Dombivali resident arrived in Mumbai on November 24 from Cape Town via Dubai and Delhi, news agency ANI quoted a health department statement as saying. He has not taken any vaccine yet.

Authorities have traced 12 high-risk and 23 low-risk contacts, all of whom have tested negative for COVID-19. Additionally, 25 other passengers from the Delhi-Mumbai flight have also returned negative tests. Further contact tracing is underway, the health department said. 

Earlier today, an elderly man – who recently returned from Zimbabwe to Gujarat’s Jamnagar – became the third person in India to test positive for the new variant. 

The sample of the Jamnagar resident, a 72-year-old man, was sent for genome sequencing after he tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday