INDIA: India told State Governments yesterday to be proactive and on the lookout for surges of the Omicron coronavirus variant after cases nearly doubled within a week across a dozen states.
India has recorded 200 Omicron infections, mostly in the western state of Maharashtra and the nation’s capital New Delhi, the Health Ministry said.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said States could take containment measures including night curfews and allow fewer people at offices and on public transport should there be a surge.
States were allowed to impose restrictions if the rate of new infections reached 10% or higher in a week or 40% of oxygen or ICU beds were occupied.
But given the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, Bhushan told states to impose such measures even if the surge was not that high.
“Keeping in mind the higher transmissibility of Omicron, states/UTs (union territories) can take containment measures and restrictions even before these thresholds are reached,” he said in a letter to state governments.
“Kindly activate the war rooms/EOCs (emergency operation centre) and keep analysing all trends and surges, no matter how small and keep taking proactive action at the district/local level,” Bhushan’s letter stated.
There have been no Omicron deaths reported so far.
In less than 40% of cases, patients either fully recovered or were discharged, the data showed.
India has been accelerating its vaccination campaign amid fears of potential surges in infections, with at least one dose given to 87% of the eligible 944 million adults. – GULF TIMES