Bhopal, Dec 26 (PTI) Madhya Pradesh reported its first cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Sunday with the state authorities saying that nine foreign returnees were found infected with the new strain in Indore, of whom seven have already been discharged after recovery. Opposition Congress questioned the BJP government in the state over the "delay" in revealing the information about the Omicron cases, while the ruling party hit back saying that the process of genome sequencing of samples takes time. "Eight Omicron cases have been found in Indore. Out of these patients, six have recovered and have been discharged while two are undergoing treatment," state Home Minister Narottam Mishra, who is also the state government"s spokesman, told reporters earlier in the day. Talking to PTI later in the evening, Indore"s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College"s dean Dr Sanjay Dixit said that a man who returned to Indore from Dubai was also found infected with the Omicron variant and that he has been discharged after recovery. This took the state"s Omicron tally to nine. Mishra said, around 3,000 people had returned to Indore from abroad recently and 26 of them were found to be infected with coronavirus. "Omicron was confirmed in the genome sequencing of eight of these people," he said. The samples of these people, who returned to the state"s industrial hub Indore from different countries, were taken between December 17 and 21, according to officials. These infected people included two men aged 20 and 30 years, who came from New York (US) on December 14 and 19 respectively, a 23-year-old woman who arrived from London (UK) on December 14, two women aged 33 and 26 who returned from Tanzania (east Africa) on December 19, a 33-year-old woman who returned from Ghana (west Africa) on December 17, and two men aged 26 and 31 years, who arrived from Dubai on December 13 and 18 respectively, they said. Talking about the ninth Omicron patient, Dr Dixit said, "We received the genome sequencing report from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi on Sunday. A 24-year-old man, who returned from Dubai to Indore, was found infected with the Omicron variant." "The man had returned to Indore a fortnight ago and was found COVID-19 infected on December 17. He has already been discharged after recovery," he said. On Saturday, Madhya Pradesh reported 42 new cases of coronavirus, raising the state"s infection tally to 7,93,655, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,532, an official earlier said. The state had 232 active COVID-19 cases, the official added. Meanwhile, state Congress chief Kamal Nath questioned the government"s "delay" in disclosing the Omicron infection cases in the state. "Eight persons tested positive for the Omicron variant and six of them recovered, while two are undergoing treatment. Why did the state government hide this information for so long? This is a serious issue," Nath said. He also raised question marks over Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan"s programmes held in Indore on Saturday. "While the Omicron variant was found in Indore, Chouhan gathered crowds by holding programmes. He should have cancelled his programmes and organised them virtually," he said. Reacting to Nath"s allegations, state BJP spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi told PTI that the state government has made all necessary arrangements to prevent the spread of coronavirus and to tackle the situation. "Nath should be aware of the fact that Omicron is detected through genome sequencing of COVID-19 patients. The samples for this test are sent to Delhi and it takes time. This testing is not like clicking pictures with Bollywood actors as Nath was doing when the coronavirus pandemic broke out in the state," Chaturvedi said. PTI ADU MAS HWP GK NP NP