Patna, Dec 31 (IANS): Amid an ongoing Covid-19 surge, the first case of the new Omicron variant has been detected in Patna on Friday.

The 26-year-old patient, who had recently returned from Delhi, is a resident of Patna's upscale IAS colony in Kidwaipuri locality.

The development was confirmed by the office of executive director of Bihar health committee.

An official of the committee said that the patient went to Delhi to meet his brother who had returned from England recently and tested Omicron positive.

"The 26-year-old person went to Delhi to know his health status on December 21. When he returned to Patna, he underwent RT-PCR test where he also tested Covid positive. The health department had taken his sample for genome sequencing and sent it to the LCDC lab in Delhi. His report came positive on Thursday evening," the official said.

"The patient is under home isolation. We have initiated contact tracing to find out others who may have come in contact with him."

Meanwhile, the health department had detected 60 positive cases on Thursday evening, which increased the active caseload in the state to 333.