By PTI
DEHRADUN: Three more persons tested positive for Omicron in Uttarakhand on Monday, taking the number of people infected with the latest COVID-19 variant to four in the state.
One of the three cases is a 28-year-old man who had returned from Yemen and tested positive for the Omicron variant in Haridwar.
The two others are a 74-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman who had come into contact with a family that had returned from Dubai and tested positive for the strain in Dehradun, Director General, Health, Tripti Bahuguna said.
A 34-year-old woman who had returned from London had tested positive for Omicron on December 11.
Meanwhile, night curfew was imposed across Uttarakhand on Monday in the wake of the rising cases of the new variant of coronavirus.
The night curfew which comes into effect on Monday night will remain in force from 11 pm to 5 am till further orders, said an order issued by Chief Secretary S S Sandhu.
However, essential services like health, movement of vehicles carrying health personnel, ambulances, postal services have been exempted from the ambit of the curfew.
Production, transportation and distribution of petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG will also be exempt from the curbs, the order said.
Private vehicles too will have the permission to commute for emergencies during the curfew time with strict adherence to Covid SOPs and safety protocols.
Health secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey has issued detailed guidelines to chief medical officers of all the districts to keep an eye on the situation.
Haryana reported two more cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus on Monday, pushing the tally of such cases to 12 in the state, according to the health department’s daily bulletin.
In view of the emergence of the Omicron cases, the Haryana government has already imposed a night curfew and restrictions on gatherings from Saturday.
It has also said people eligible for vaccination but not fully vaccinated will be banned from entering shopping malls, cinema halls, restaurants and grain markets, among other crowded places, from January 1.
Meanwhile, the state reported 85 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 61 in Gurugram alone, the bulletin said.
However, no fresh fatality due to the viral disease was reported in the state.
The total COVID-19 case count rose to 7,72,718 in the state, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,062.
Among other districts, Faridabad and Ambala reported eight and three fresh cases respectively.
The number of active coronavirus cases in the state is 536, while 7,62,097 patients have recuperated, the bulletin said, adding that the recovery rate was recorded at 98.63 per cent.
Gujarat on Monday reported 24 new cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, raising the tally in this segment in the state to 73, an official said.
Ahmedabad city led with 13 new cases, comprising nine with international travel history and four with no travel history, the state department official said.
All the four cases reported in Gandhinagar city had international travel history, while the three people detected with the new variant in Rajkot city did not have any travel history, the department said in a release.
One case each was reported in Amreli, Anand, Bharuch and Vadodara districts, it added.
Of the Omicron caseload of 73, a total of 17 people have been discharged, the official added.
Ahmedabad has 24 Omicron cases, followed by 17 in Vadodara, he said, adding that 12 districts have reported patients with the new variant so far.
The Indore health department in Madhya Pradesh has sent for tests samples of 164 people, who came in contact with nine people found infected with the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, an official said on Monday.
Out of these 164 people, if anyone tests positive for coronavirus, then that person’s sample will be sent to the National Centre for Disease Control for genome sequencing to ascertain if the person is infected with the Omicron variant, Indore’s Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr B S Saitya said.
Of the nine people found infected with Omicron here after return from abroad, seven have recovered and gone back home from hospital, he said.
“The other two patients are admitted in different hospitals here and their health condition is stable,” the official said.
In the last 24 hours, 14 people tested positive for the coronavirus in Indore, taking the district’s infection tally to 1,53,572.
Out of them, 1,395 people have so far died due to viral infection, he said.
