Avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings: Govt

Avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings: Govt

26 New Cases Of Omicron Take India Tally Past 100

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:18.12.2021

The Centre recorded total 101 cases infected with the new SARS-COV2 variant Omicron from 11 states detected through genome sequencing.

“As the Omicron variant is spreading very fast across Europe and most parts of the world, there is a need to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings and keep festivities low-key. New Year celebrations have to be low-key,” ICMR director-general Dr Balram Bhargava said.

While Maharashtra (32), Delhi (22) and Rajasthan (17) have reported maximum number of cases, Karnataka and Telangana have recorded eight each, Gujarat and Kerala five each, and Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal one each till 4pm on Friday.

The government said only one or two cases are without travel history or contacts with those having travel history. However, in such cases, contact tracing is still going on. The government also said that it may be premature at this stage to extrapolate data of Omicron positive cases detected through genome sequencing to do a modelling for absolute numbers.

Asked if India is carrying out adequate genomic sequencing, officials said sufficient systematic strategic sampling is being undertaken for genomic sequencing to detect Omicron cases.

India is carrying out the “second-highest” number of genomic sequencing in the world and it is being further intensified, NITI Aayog member-health Dr V K Paul said.

“The overall situation is stable. In some districts the positivity rate is increasing and if needed restrictive measures should be implemented. There should be proper contact tracing and containment measures should be implemented. Clusters should be investigated to see if the new variant is driving the rise in cases there,” Paul said.

On whether the Omicron variant is at the community transmission level, Agarwal said, “We cannot at this point say that Omicron variant is widespread in India. Most cases of Omicron have a travel history or had contacts with those who have travel histories.