Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Balram Bhargava has issued a call to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings, and observe low-intensity festivities In view of the number of Omicron cases in the country surging past the 100-mark.
Addressing a Covid-related briefing Friday, he also called for “local restrictive measures” to be implemented in 24 districts from seven states, including nine in Kerala and eight in Manipur, with a weekly test positivity rate above 5 per cent.
Bhargava said, “I would like to further emphasise: time to avoid non-essential travel, time to avoid mass gatherings, and time to observe low-intensity festivities…ushering in the new year is to be very low intensity, that is very important.”
Referring to the fast spreading Omicron variant, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said, “It is spreading very fast after its emergence… Over 27,000 cases of Omicron have been reported from 91 countries.”
In India, 113 cases of Omicron have been detected so far, with the sharpest daily spike recorded on Friday: 12 in Delhi, eight in Maharashtra and two each in Gujarat, Telangana and Kerala. However there is no evidence that the levels of positivity in the 24 districts flagged by the Government is being caused by the new variant. This indicates that Omicron might still have relatively low penetration in the Indian population, as of now.
According to Health Ministry data, 24 districts reported more than 5 per cent weekly test positivity rate between December 9 and 15, which is much higher than the below 1 per cent figure for the entire country during the same period.
