Mumbai, Feb 10 (IANS): After lying low for a week, Omicron suddenly returned to Maharashtra with 121 cases reported from various districts, even as Covid-19 cases remained under control with a drop in active cases, health officials said on Thursday.

The state had reported 113 Omicron infections on February 2, and now with a lull of a week, the variant has again cropped up with 121 cases, raising concerns among health officials.

Now, the state has notched up a total of 3,455 Omicron cases of which 2,291 have been cured and discharged, while 8,081 samples have been sent for genome sequencing, and the test results of 902 are awaited.

The state on Thursday recorded 6,248 new Covid-19 infections with 45 fatalities, besides 70,150 active cases, while 553,175 remain in home isolation and another 2,386 are in institutional quarantine.

The state's progressive tally of Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 78,29,633 plus 143,292 deaths so far.