17 Omicron Cases In Maharashtra, Mumbai Bans Large Gatherings For Now

On a day when the city reported three new cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant that took Maharashtra's tally to 17 and India's to 32, the police in Mumbai ordered a two-day ban on large gatherings, news agency PTI reported.

The restrictions were imposed within the commissionerate limits of Mumbai, prohibiting rallies and protest marches involving people and vehicles over the next two days, an official told PTI.

The order, issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), will be in effect for 48 hours on Saturday and Sunday, he said.

"It has been issued to prevent danger to human life from the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 as well as a threat to the law-and-order situation against the backdrop of violence that took place in Amravati, Malegaon and Nanded," he said.

Maharashtra reported seven new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Friday including a three-and-half-year-old girl, the state health department said.

The three patients from Mumbai were all men, aged 48, 25 and 37 with recent travel history of Tanzania, the UK and South Africa-Nairobi, respectively, the health department said. The new cases took the tally of Omicron patients in Mumbai to five.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the 48-year-old traveller who returned from Tanzania was a resident of the densely-populated Dharavi area, but he was asymptomatic and isolated before he mingled in the community.

He tested positive for COVID-19 on December 4, has mild symptoms and he had not taken any dose of vaccine against the COVID-19, according to the civic body. His two close contacts tested negative for the viral infection.

The 25-year-old traveller returned from London tested positive for COVID-19 on December 1 and he had taken both doses of the vaccine. He had no symptoms of COVID-19.

The 37-year-old Gujarat resident tested positive to COVID-19 on December 4 after arrival. He was shifted to hospital directly from the airport and he has mild symptoms, though he was fully vaccinated, the BMC said.

The other four new patients were reported from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in the Pune district. They are all contacts of three women who had arrived from Nigeria and were found to have Omicron infection earlier, the corporation said in a statement.

Of the seven new patients, four were fully vaccinated, it added.

"One patient has received a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine while one patient has not been vaccinated. Another patient is three and a half years old and not eligible for vaccination," the statement said.

Four of the new patients were asymptomatic while the other three have only mild symptoms, it added.

The statement said 61,439 international travellers have arrived in the state via Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur airports since December 1. Of these, 9,678 were from ''at-risk'' countries.