Since the highly transmissible COVID-19 variant was first detected in southern Africa in November and spread to the nation in December last year, at least 62 instances of the Omicron version of COVID-19 have been detected in Mizoram for the first time, according to an official.

The state health department got the findings of 122 samples submitted to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in West Bengal for genome sequencing in January, according to official COVID-19 spokesperson Dr Pachuau Lalmalsawma. COVID-19 positive patients from Aizawl, Khawzawl, Kolasib, Saitual, and Serchhip districts provided the samples, he said.

"Of the 122 samples, 62 samples, all from the Aizawl district, tested positive for the Omicron strain of COVID-19," said Pachuau, who is also the state nodal officer for the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

Moreover, of the 122 samples, 12 have tested positive for Delta variants and 18 have tested positive for Delta sub-variants, he added. According to him, none of the samples taken from Khawzawl, Kolasib, Saitual, or Serchhip tested positive for Omicron. On February 12, at least 300 COVID-19 patient samples were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics for genome sequencing, according to Pachuau, and the findings are still pending.

He also stated that the results of several tests sent in January had yet to be received.
According to the state health department, Mizoram recorded as many as 2022 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, with a positivity rate of 25.54 percent.

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