India Reports 2 More Omicron Cases, Tally Mounts To 35

India reported two more cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in Punjab’s Chandigarh and Andhra Pradesh, officials said on Sunday, taking the country-wide tally of such cases to 35.

According to officials of the Chandigarh health department, a 20-year-old man from Italy, who landed in India last month, has tested positive for the Omicron variant. The man landed in India on November 22 and was diagnosed with Covid-19 on December 1, according to news agency ANI.

“He is fully vaccinated with Pfizer vaccine. He has been tested for Covid-19 again today and the report is awaited,” an official of the Chandigarh health department was quoted as saying by ANI.

The Andhra Pradesh health department said a 34-year old foreign traveller, who came from Ireland, tested positive for Omicron, in the first such case detected in the southern state.

The person, who first landed in Mumbai, was tested and found negative for Covid-19 and was then allowed to travel to Visakhapatnam on November 27.

“On conducting a second RT-PCR test in Vizianagaram, he tested positive for Covid-19. His sample was then sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad for genome sequencing and the result came out as Omicron positive,” the director of public health said in a release.

The person, however, did not have any symptoms and a re-test on December 11 showed he was Covid-19 negative.

So far, 15 foreign travellers to the state have been found Covid-19 positive and all the samples were sent to CCMB for genome sequencing.

“Of the 15, genome sequencing reports related to 10 cases were received and only one of them was confirmed Omicron positive,” the director added.

Official asked people not to worry and continue to follow Covid appropriate behaviour and take necessary precautions.