Four more cases of the coronavirus variant Omicron have been confirmed in Kerala, state Health Minister Veena George said on Wednesday, December 15, night. With this the total cases of the variant in Kerala has reached 5 and in India, 73.

Speaking to reporters in Thiruvananthapuram, the minister said two of the four news cases were the wife and mother-in-law of the Ernakulam native who was the first person in Kerala to test positive for Omicron. Of the remaining two, one was a Thiruvananthapuram native who had returned from the UK and the other was a Ernakulam native who had just come back from Congo, the minister said.

She said that contacts of all these persons were being identified and their flight details were being collected. She advised everyone to exercise caution.

So far, Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 32, followed by Rajasthan at 17. Omicron cases have also been reported in Karnataka (3), Gujarat (4), Telangana (2), West Bengal (1), Andhra Pradesh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and Union Territories of Delhi (6) and Chandigarh (1).

The Omicron variant was first detected in India in Bengaluru with two people testing positive for it comprising a South African national of Indian origin and a doctor.

Kerala on Wednesday reported 4,006 new infections and 282 deaths, which took the caseload to 51,92,593 and the death toll to 43,626. Of the 282 deaths, 125 were recorded over the last few days and 157 were designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court, a state government release said. 

With 3,898 more people recovering from the virus since Tuesday, the total recoveries reached 51,24,899 and the active cases dropped to 35,234, it said. As many as 65,704 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.