Ahmad Adil
05 January 2022•Update: 05 January 2022
NEW DELHI
As India continues to see an "exponential" rise in COVID-19 cases, a Health Ministry official on Wednesday confirmed the country’s first fatality from the omicron variant.
According to officials in western Rajasthan state, a 73-year-old man, who had been found infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus, died on Dec. 31 last year.
"He was an elderly person. The person was reported to have severe diabetes as well and had comorbid conditions," Lav Agarwal, a senior ministry official, said at a news conference when asked about a report of the omicron-related death in the western Rajasthan state.
During the news conference, Health Ministry officials also said that the country has reported a 6.3% increase in number of COVID-19 cases in the last eight days.
Balram Bhargava, director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said that the number of COVID-19 is "increasing exponentially" and that omicron is the predominant strain circulating in Indian cities.
On Wednesday morning, official figures reveal that 58,097 new infections were registered in India over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 35.01 million. Fresh 534 fatalities over the past day pushed the death toll to 482,551.
The Health Ministry figures also revealed that the number of omicron cases has crossed 2,000 mark in India.
The deteriorating virus situation in India is of particular concern given the devastating impact of last year’s wave, which was one of the worst in the world since the start of the pandemic and pushed daily infection and fatality figures over 400,000 and 4,500, respectively.
A number of Indian cities have announced additional curbs to prevent the spread of the infection. Weekend curfews will be enforced in the capital New Delhi.
