India's Omicron tally crosses 200 mark

New Delhi: The number of cases of Covid's fast-spreading strain Omicron has crossed the 200-mark in India, the latest data from the health ministry has revealed.

Out of them, 77 patients have recovered or migrated, the ministry added.

The latest surge in tally have been recorded after Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha on Tuesday recorded their first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID.

As per reports, three persons with no travel history got tested positive in J and K. Presently, their condition is stable.

At least two people in Odisha tested positive for the Omicron variant, the first cases of the latest version of coronavirus in the state, state officials said.

Bhubaneswar-based Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) detected the variant in the two patients after conducting the genome sequencing of 12 samples.

Both of them have travel history to foreign nations - Nigeria and Qatar, the officials said.

So far, Maharashtra and Delhi have reported the highest number of cases of the new variant -- 54. They are followed by Telangana (20 cases), Karnataka (19), Rajasthan (18), Kerala (15) and Gujarat (14).

The Omicron strain of Covid, known to be highly transmissible, has set off alarm bells and stoked grim memories of the devastating second wave of the pandemic that had brought the country's health infrastructure on its knees.

Delhi, which was among the worst hit in the second wave, clocked 107 cases Sunday, crossing the 100-mark after six months and prompting a meeting of the disaster management authorities.

Following the meeting, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged people not to panic and assured them that the government had made adequate arrangements to tackle a surge in cases. Pointing out that many were not masking up and had dropped their guard following a drop in cases, he urged residents to keep following Covid norms

Meanwhile, the Omicron strain is leading to an alarming spike in cases across the world.

In the US, the new variant accounts for 73 per cent of all sequenced Covid cases, surging from around 3% last week, according to the latest federal estimates.

The delta variant, which had been the dominant form of the virus in the US last week, has now receded to roughly 27 per cent of sequenced cases.

The World Health Organization has said the Omicron variant is spreading faster than the Delta variant and is causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from Covid.