NEW DELHI, Jan 5: India on Wednesday reported its first Omicron-linked death. The joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Aggarwal said the death of a person with comorbidities, including diabetes, had been reported from Rajasthan and this was “technically” a Omicron-related death.
The 73-year-old, who was found infected with Omicron in genome sequencing, had tested negative for the infection twice. He died in a Udaipur hospital on December 31, due to post-COVID-19 pneumonia coupled with comorbidities—diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypothyroidism.
He tested positive on December 15 and has been in hospital since then. He was fully vaccinated with no significant contact and travel history. His genome sequencing results came in on December 25 and he was found to carry the Omicron variant. He died six days later around 3.30 a.m, the Health Ministry official revealed on Wednesday.
(Manas Dasgupta)