Returnee From South Africa Infected With Omicron, Gujarat Tally Reaches 4

A 42-year-old man from Surat who recently returned from South Africa tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Monday, making him the first such case from Surat and fourth in Gujarat, a health department official said.

Earlier, three cases of the Omicron variant infection were reported from Jamnagar in Gujarat, including a 72-year-old NRI man who had returned from Zimbabwe, his wife and brother-in-law.

The 42-year-old patient found infected with the Omicron strain is a businessman based in Surat.

"He had arrived at Delhi airport from South Africa via Kenya and Abu Dhabi on December 3. He had tested negative for coronavirus," deputy Municipal Commissioner, Health, Ashish Naik said.

He again tested negative on December 4.

"After he was hospitalised briefly for isolation here, he tested positive for coronavirus on December 8, following which we sent his sample for genome sequencing. He was detected with the Omicron variant on Monday," Mr Naik said.

The patient is under treatment in home isolation, the official said, adding that all his relatives and all the four co-passengers have tested negative for coronavirus.