Kerala Health Minister Veena George said on Thursday that the southern state is seeing an outbreak of Omicron infections, with instances of the highly contagious form on the increase.
Kerala registered 51,739 new Covid cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 58.26 lakh. On Tuesday, the state recorded 55,475 cases, the biggest single-day increase since the pandemic began in 2020.
Speaking to reporters, George said: ‘It is now clear that the third wave in Kerala is the Omicron wave’. She added that the Omicron variant was identified in 94% of Covid patient samples analysed as part of governmental monitoring. In 6% of cases, the Delta strain was also discovered.
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As the state reported over 51,000 cases, George said that sequencing of Covid samples from sick people who travelled to Kerala from other regions indicated that 80% of them were infected with the Omicron strain and 20% with Delta.
Omicron-driven third wave has surpassed the peak recorded in the second wave due to Delta. The previous record for the most people counted in a single day was 46,387 on January 20.
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