Omicron tally climbs to 358 cases, center says, world seeing 4th Covid Surge

Omicron tally is rising rapidly in the country, and this rise also giving the indication of third wave. So far the country has recorded  358 cases of new covid variant. 

At the press conference which was held on Friday, Union Health minister Rajesh Bhushan said, this 358 news cases are spread in 17 states of the country, and this is matter of concern now. ICMR chief Dr Balram Bharghava who was also present at the conference said, that Delta is still the most noticeable stain of country which has lead second wave of covid  in India. He also said that  183 Omicron cases analysed so far, “91% were fully vaccinated with three having booster shots, 70% were asymptomatic, 61% were males”.

He further added “therapeutic interventions” to manage Omicron infected patients remains the same. “Therapeutic interventions for the management of patients with severe or critical Covid-19 associated with the Omicron variant that target host responses are expected to remain effective. Although evidence is still emerging, risk of potential immune escape against infection,”. 

Union health minister Rajesh Bhushan also warned the nation by saying “The world is witnessing the fourth surge and and the overall positivity is 6.1%. Therefore, we have to be on guard and we can’t afford to slacken".

“While Europe, North America and Africa are seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases week-on-week, Asia is still witnessing a decline in cases week-on-week,” he added. 

Bhushan later spoke about Covid cases in states, the country is observing highest number of Omicron cases in  are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka. “Twenty districts in India are reporting a weekly positivity between 5 and 10%,” he said. Bhushan also added that  Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have low vaccination rates.

He also gave the details about future arrangements that have been made for Omicron crises, he said "Today, we have 18,10,083 isolation beds, 4,94,314 O2 supported beds, 1,39,300 ICU beds, 24,057 pediatric ICU beds and 64,796 pediatric non-ICU beds available nationally.” He also told that center government asked states to be protective and alert "impose restrictions like night curfew, regulating large gatherings. increase bed capacity and other logistics and strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour, bhushan said." 

He also gave information about vaccination rates, he said so far 89% of the adult population have received the first dose and 61% of the eligible population has received the second dose.