As COVID resurfaces, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Museum closed for public

The tour of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum will remain closed from Saturday (January 1), as a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19.

The Change of Guard ceremony will also not take place till further notice, a statement issued on Friday by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

“As a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19, tour of Rashtrapati Bhavan and Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum will remain closed from tomorrow (January 1, 2022) till further notice,” it said.

India saw the highest single-day rise of 309 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, taking the country’s tally of such cases to 1,270, the Union health ministry said on Friday.

Also read: COVID scare: Mumbai’s public places closed from 5pm to 5am till Jan 15

It also recorded 16,764 fresh COVID-19 cases and 220 more fatalities due to the viral disease.

Meanwhile, community transmission of Omicron has probably begun in Maharashtra as was evident from genome sequencing results obtained from the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Mumbai. The hospital detected the new variant Omicron in nearly one-third samples it tested. A day before, the Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) detected Omicron in 38 of its samples from Mumbai and Pune in their community surveillance.

The reproduction number or R, an indicator of how quickly a disease is spreading, has crossed 1 in all big cities of India. An R-value of 1 means that every infected person is passing on the infection to at least one person on an average. It is an indication that the infection is spreading rapidly, which also means India could be on the threshold of the third wave of COVID. Delhi and Mumbai have R-values over 2 right now.

(With inputs from agencies)