Amid the massive surge of Covid cases and the rising number of the highly contagious Omicron Covid variant cases, India on Thursday recorded what can be termed as its first Omicron death.
A 52-year-old man in Pimpri Chinchwad, infected with Omicron, reportedly died due to heart attack on December 28. However, the state health authorities have denied the Omicron infection to be the cause of death.
The Pune health department authorities have refused to consider him as the first casualty of the new variant and stressed that the fatality was caused because of other underlying health conditions.
"The death of this patient is due to non-COVID-19 reasons. Coincidently, today's National Institute of Virology (NIV) report has revealed that he was infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19," said the health bulletin by the Public Health Department, Maharashtra.
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The public health department further revealed that the man had a travel history from Nigeria and was also a diabetic patient for the last 13 years. The health experts in Mumbai said that the man was also infected with Covid-19 and the death is likely to be classified as a Covid fatality.
Maharashtra recorded a significant spike in the number of Omicron cases as it registered 198 new Omicron cases on Thursday. The state has observed the highest single-day tally for the new variant for the second consecutive day. The overall new variant cases in Maharastra stands at 450.
The second-highest tally was reported by national capital Delhi on Thursday as it registered 25 new Omicron cases and Haryana reported 23 new cases. The new variant has spread across 24 states and UTs in the country.
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India has so far registered nearly 1,200 Omicron Covid variant cases and two more states including Punjab and Bihar have recorded cases of the new variant.
