Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 17 (IANS): With a couple arriving from the UAE testing positive for Omicron, the total number of cases in Kerala of the new Covid variant have risen to 7, state Health Minister Veena George said on Friday.

She said the couple, aged 68 and 67, hails from Ernakulam and had arrived from Sharjah on December 8.

"Since the UAE does not come in the high risk list of countries, the two, after arriving, were in self-isolation and underwent a RT-PCR test on December 11 and 12 and they tested positive for Covid. Then these samples were sent for genomic sequencing and tested positive for Omicron," said George.

"The primary contacts of the husband were six people, while the wife had one. There were 54 passengers on the flight from Sharjah and those who have come in direct contact with the couple have been asked to undergo the test. With this, the number of Omicron cases among those who arrived from non-risk countries have gone up to three, hence all those arriving from non-high risk category have all been directed to strictly undergo self-isolation for two weeks," she added.