A man in Tamil Nadu with a travel history to Nigeria has tested positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and is now the first confirmed case in the state. The infected individual and the seven people he had come in contact with are currently isolating.

Tamil Nadu health minister Ma Subramaniam confirmed the news, stating that the passenger, who arrived here from Nigeria via Doha on December 10, had tested positive for the variant, and that six of his family members who travelled with him have also been admitted to the The King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Chennai.

“In the initial level of testing of their sampling, there was S-gene drop raising the suspicion of being infected by Omicron. Now, we have the received the results sent from the National Institute of Virology. The passenger has tested positive for Omicron,” Ma Subramaniam was quoted as saying by a news agency.

“With the result of the passenger confirmed, we suspect six of his family members, along with a 16-year-old child, also to be positive (for Omicron). We received the result confirming Omicron variant of the passenger a few minutes back,” the state health minister added. A total of 73 cases of Omicron have been reported in India as of Thursday morning.