Puducherry, Dec 28 (IANS): The Union Territory of Puducherry reported its first two cases of Omicron variant on Tuesday.

According to Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr G. Sriramalu, while one of the patients is an 80-year-old person from Kandacrathottam, the second is a 20-year-old woman from Navarkulam, Lawspet, on the border of Puducherry and Villupuram.

The two persons are local residents and got affected by the virus on December 7. The elderly man was admitted to a hospital where he recovered. The 20-year-old woman recovered from home isolation.

Dr Sriramalu said that the health department is now in the process of tracing the contacts of the two and ascertaining how they contracted the disease.

The state health director also said that the samples of all those who test positive for Covid-19 are now being sent for genome sequencing test to find out whether anyone is affected by the Omicron variant.

Notably, Puducherry has shown a fall in Covid cases for the past few months and the presence of the Omicron variant has made the Health department of the territory a worried lot.

Sources in the state health department told IANS that the territory is beefing up the health infrastructure to prevent any overcrowding of hospitals if there is a spurt in cases.

While Omicron is not that lethal compared to other variants, doctors and health department officials are of the opinion that it multiplies exponentially leading to the health infrastructure being filled up and this may lead to patients dying for want of proper treatment.