Bhubaneswar, Dec 26 (IANS): Four more persons in Odisha have tested positive for the Omicron Covid-19 variant, taking the overall caseload in the state to eight, officials said here on Sunday.

As per latest report, another four foreign returnees have tested Omicron positive following genome sequencing conducted by Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar.

While two of the infected persons returned from Nigeria, the other two had recently travelled to the UAE, said Director, Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra.

All are asymptomatic to mild symptom cases and their health condition is stable, he said, adding: "One of the new Omicron positive cases has already tested negative as we are conducting tests in regular intervals on 8th, 10th and 12th days."

All persons, who are returning from 'at-risk' or any other country, are being kept under isolation and undergoing RT-PCR tests.

Genome sequencing of all persons testing positive for the virus is being done, Mohapatra stated.

Of the four earlier Omicron cases detected in the state, three had returned from Nigeria and the fourth from Qatar.

In the last 24 hours, Odisha recorded 112 new Covid-19 cases and one fatality, taking the active cases to 1,594 and death toll to 8,452.