India’s Omicron tally crosses 100; govt asks to limit travel, gatherings
India’s Omicron cases crossed the 100 mark on Friday evening, with the Centre announcing 101 cases in 11 states and warning people to avoid travel that is unnecessary.
“This is the time to avoid non-essential travel, mass gatherings and it is very important to observe low-intensity festivities,” Dr Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR, said.
As the number of cases from the new variant rises steeply in Europe, health officials have said that there is no evidence to suggest that vaccines are not effective against Omicron variant, although it will outpace the Delta variant.
Health secretary Lav Agarwal said there were only few Omicron cases are without travel history, and there was nothing to conclude that we are in community transmission of Omicron.
Earlier in the day, the national capital recorded 10 and Telangana reported two fresh cases of the new variant till Friday afternoon (December 17). Delhi also registered the highest daily count of fresh cases (85) in the last four months.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said most of the 20 cases in the national capital so far have been foreign travellers. While the health machinery is on alert, 10 of the Omicron patients have already got a discharge, hinting that the situation is under control, so far.
In Telangana, two Omicron cases were reported on Friday, taking the total number of cases of the new coronavirus variant to nine. The nine cases include a boy from West Bengal who flew to Kolkata with his family members without entering the city after his samples were collected at the international airport.
On Thursday (December 16), Karnataka recorded five fresh cases of Omicron, Delhi and Telangana four each and Gujarat one. A total of 14 new cases were added though Maharashtra, with the highest 32 cases, remained neutral on Thursday. Karnataka’s omicron tally has risen to 8 so far.
Besides, Rajasthan has 17, Gujarat and Kerala both have five each, Telangana nine and Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Chandigarh and Tamil Nadu have reported one case each.
Checks at airports have been tightened and genome sequencing has been increased.
The United Kingdom tops the list of countries affected by the new variant with 11,708 cases, followed by Denmark (9,009 cases). Norway is third with 1,792 patients. South Africa has 1,134 cases.
Also read: Hospitalisations, deaths due to Omicron may rise, warns WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned countries to remain alert as the Omicron strain is now everywhere. Urging people not to dismiss the Omicron variant as mild and ignore COVID-19 precautions, the WHO warned that the highly transmissible Omicron variant was spreading at a rate not seen with any previous variant. And that the “sheer number” of Omicron cases could once again “overwhelm unprepared health systems”.
India’s first Omicron cases were reported from Bengaluru on December 2 when two people – a 66-year-old and a 46-year-old male – tested positive for the variant. The Omicron variant is believed to have 50 mutations, of which more than 30 are on the spike protein that is the target of current vaccines.
A day before, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath hinted at vaccine inequity as the reason for fast spread of Omicron. Gopinath pointed out that high-income countries have vaccinated 70 per cent of their population while lower-income countries have immunised less than four per cent. She said that the poorer countries’ lack of access to COVID vaccines is the reason why the Omicron threat looms large.
Meanwhile, the country’s overall positivity rate has remained below 1% for more than a month, said the Union Health Ministry.
