Omnicron: India confirm first cases of new Covid variant

Two men in Karnataka were the first to be tested positive for the Omicron coronavirus variant.

One of the deceased is a 66-year-old South African national, had travelled from there and had already left India.

The second one is a 46-year-old doctor from Bengaluru and surprisingly, he has no travel history.

At a press conference held on Thursday, the officials said that two patients with new strain had shown mild symptoms.

Also, five contacts of the 46-year old man have been tested positive . The patients have been isolated and their specimens have been sent for genome testing.

The 66 year old South African, got himself tested at a private lab and produced a negative result. On 27 November, he took a cab to the Bengaluru airport and left for Dubai.

According to Officials the 24 primary contacts and 240 secondary contacts of the man were traced, and all of them have tested negative.

After the discovery of two patients ; Karnataka's CM said "Our duty is now to track and trace such strains and their contacts wherever it's found."

India has already announced new travel restrictions for international passengers arriving from UK, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Israel.