Maharashtra Omicron scare: 12 among 318 people who returned from abroad \'untraceable\'

Thane: At least 12 people are untraceable out of 318 people who have returned from foreign countries to the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation area of Maharashtra's Thane. This comes amid rising concerns over the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron.

"318 people returned from the foreign countries recently in Thane's Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation area. 12 people are untraceable. A search operation is on to locate them," said KDMC chief Vijay Sooryavanshi.

"Some of the passengers who returned cannot be reached as their mobile phones are switched off whereas the addresses that the others gave are locked up," he said.

The KDMC chief informed that a team of the Health Department would visit again today to the given addresses.

The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.

On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'.