India reported its first Omicron death on Wednesday.

The deceased, 73-year-old Laxminarayan Nagar had tested positive on December 15.

Though he tested COVID negative on December 21, a genome sequencing result that come in on December 25 revealed that he was carrying the Omicron variant.

He died six days later, on December 31 at around 3:30 am.

He had received two doses of the vaccine and had no significant contact and travel history.

The 73-year-old man, who was found infected with Omicron in genome sequencing and who had tested negative for the infection twice, died in a Udaipur hospital on December 31, according to a report in news agency PTI.

He died due to post-Covid pneumonia coupled with comorbidities—diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypothyroidism — Udaipur Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Dinesh Kharadi had said.

COVID-19: 4,801 cases in Kerala on Wednesday, TPR rises to 6.75%

Kerala recorded 4,801 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday after testing 71,098 samples, taking its Test Positivity Rate (TPR) to 6.75 per cent.

After 1,813 more recover from the infection, the number active patients in the state reached 22,910. Among them, only 9 per cent are admitted to hospitals currently.

The active cases had dropped below 20,000 on December 30, 2021 after more than a year. However, with the Omicron variant spreading rapidly, cases have been increasing and the active cases again crossed the 20K-mark on Tuesday.

COVID fatalities reached 48,895, after 229 previously undocumented deaths and 29 recent ones were added to the list, Health Minister Veena George said in a press release.