Maharashtra reports three more cases of Omicron variant, state's total tally rises to 43

New Delhi: Maharashtra on Saturday (December 18, 2021) reported three more cases of Omicron, taking the state's tally of such infections of the new COVID-19 variant to 43.

The new cases were recorded in Satara's Phaltan and all the patients have an international travel history.

The development comes a day after Maharashtra, the worst COVID-19-hit state in India, logged eight cases of Omicron. Of the eight infections, six were reported from Pune and one each from Mumbai and Kalyan Dombivli.

Seven of the eight patients were asymptomatic while one of them exhibited mild symptoms. This is noteworthy that all eight of them were vaccinated.

So far, apart from Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have also registered cases of the new variant of coronavirus.

While the country's first two cases of the Omicron variant were detected in Karnataka on December 2, this mutated version of COVID-19 was first reported in South Africa on November 24.

Earlier on Friday, Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog, had said that the Delta and Omicron variant together are fuelling the spike and this despite the fact that many of these countries are largely vaccinated with both doses. 

"If we look at the scale of spread in the UK and if there is a similar outbreak in India, then given our population, there will be 14 lakh cases every day," he warned.

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