vadodara the city registered the first covid19 case with the omicron variant having no travel or contact history it was amongst two omicron cases confirmed in the city on thursdaynine omicron infected persons were meanwhile discharged on thursday these persons had tested negative twice in 24 hours they have been advised of strict home isolation for seven daysthe case without travel or contact history is from the sama area of vadodara the 53yearold man was having complaint of cough and tested positive on december 16 he was isolated at home and a repeat test on december 26 was found negative the genome sequencing reports that arrived on thursday revealed that he was infected by the omicron variantwith no travel or contact history officials suspect that the omicron variant may have infected many others this was expected sooner or later said an officialthe second case is that of a 65yearold man with a travel history to nairobi in kenya he had returned on december 11 and was found positive on december 17 in followup testing by health officials he was hospitalised and his three close contacts were traced all the contacts tested negative genome sequencing of the elderly man results that arrived on thursday was positive for the omicron variant the patient remains in isolation the samples of the patient as well as the close contacts were collected again on thursdayin all 20 cases of the omicron variant have been reported in vadodara city and district so far these include 19 in the city and one in the district the case in the district is that of a man from bhayli who had international travel history another spike in casesvadodara city and district reported 38 new covid19 cases from 5211 tests on thursday the cases are equal to the number of cases reported on june 16 this year when the second wave was ebbing rapidly the west zone of the city accounted for the highest number of new cases as 16 tested positive in the area this was followed by the east zone where 10 persons tested positive even as the north and south zones accounted for four and five cases three new cases were reported from the areas of the district outside the city limitsthe new cases on thursday pushed the total number of positive cases to 72693 with eight persons being discharged on thursday the total number of discharged persons went up to 71910 as many as 623 persons have died as per official records the number of active cases has risen significantly to 160 now out of which two are in serious condition on bipap machines or ventilators and six need oxygen support msu hostel de facto isolation facilitya hostel block in the m s universitys hostel campus became an isolation facility in a way as the warden there tested positive for covid19the wardens samples were collected two days back as he was not feeling well and the report turned out positive he had come in close contact