The world is witnessing the fourth surge of the Covid-19 pandemic and India has to be on guard and cannot afford to slacken, said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Friday.
The Union Health Secretary issued a fresh warning against the pandemic in the wake of the rise in Omicron cases and said, “The world is witnessing the fourth surge and the overall positivity is 6.1%. Therefore, we have to be on guard and can’t afford to slacken.” He said that as compared to Europe, North America and Africa are seeing an increase in Covid cases week-on-week. Asia is witnessing a decline in the number of fresh cases, but India has to be on guard.
“The top five states with the highest number of active cases, at the moment, are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka,” said Rajesh Bhushan.
Further speaking on the rise in Omicron cases, he said the country has so far reported 358 Omicron cases in 17 states and UTs, while 114 people have recovered from the new variant of coronavirus. He further said that 89% of the adult population has received the first dose and 61% of the eligible population has received the second dose of vaccines.
He added that the Health Ministry advised the states on 21 December to impose restrictions like night curfew and regulate large gatherings.
“The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pre-emptively advised the states on 21st December to impose restrictions like night curfew, regulating large gatherings, increase bed capacity and other logistics and strict enforcement of Covid appropriate behaviour,” said the Union Health Secretary.
Bhushan said that as of now there are 1,810,083 isolation beds, 494,314 O2 supported beds, 139,300 ICU beds, 24,057 paediatric ICU beds and 64,796 paediatric non-ICU beds are available nationally.
While speaking on the need for medical oxygen, he said, “There was a 10-fold increase in oxygen demand from the first wave to the second wave. Thus, 18,800 metric tonnes of medical oxygen per day have been arranged for. The cause for concern are 11 states where vaccination coverage is less than the national average.”
“The World Health Organization (WHO) on 7 December said that Omicron has a significant growth advantage over Delta which means, it has greater transmissibility. Omicron cases double within 1.5-3 days, so we have to remain vigilant with Covid-appropriate behaviour,” he added.
He also said that “The treatment protocols for Covid-19 and Delta will apply to Omicron. While the evidence emerges, the immune escape potential for Delta is higher and its high transmission rates will lead to high surge cases.”
“During the analysis of 183 Omicron positive cases, 121 had a foreign history, 44 cases have no travel history but most of them are those who came in contact with those who have travel history. 87 people were fully vaccinated, three people were those who received three doses and amongst them two are from Delhi and one is from Maharashtra,” Bhushan added. He further said that the vaccination status of some patients was being tracked and that some were unvaccinated. “Seven people unvaccinated, two people amongst them partially vaccinated, 16 Omicron positive patients were ineligible and 73 are those whose vaccination status is unknown we are tracking that,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that they were reviewing scientific data to formulate a policy on booster shots. “Deliberations are underway. We are reviewing scientific data to formulate a policy,” said Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of ICMR.
As a working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) recommendations is still under process over booster dose and vaccination for children, Dr V.K. Paul, member, Niti Aayog said, “Decision on the booster and children’s vaccination will be based on science.”
DELHI REPORTS 180 NEW CASES
Delhi reported 180 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the biggest single-day spike since 16 June this year, as per the state health bulletin on Friday. As per the health bulletin, the daily positivity rate is 0.29% in the national capital while no death has been reported in the past 24 hours. At present, Delhi has reported 1,442,813 Covid cases so far, including 782 active cases, while the cumulative death toll stands at 25,103. The cumulative positivity rate is 4.47% while the case fatality is 1.74% in the national capital. A total number of 82 people have been recovered from the coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,416,928. Due to the increasing number of infections, Delhi has constituted a total of 207 containment zones till today. Under the nationwide vaccination drive, more than two crore beneficiaries have been inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine.
STATES IMPOSE RESTRICTIONS
The Maharashtra government announced new Covid guidelines on Friday, prohibiting a gathering of more than five persons in public places from 9 pm to 6 am. Only 100 people will be allowed in indoor weddings and not more than 250 in outdoor weddings. Gyms, spas, hotels, theatres and cinema halls will operate with 50% capacity. A seven-day quarantine has been made mandatory for people coming from Dubai.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday decided to impose a night curfew from 25 December, from 11 pm to 5 am. No more than 200 people will be allowed at weddings. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that every single passenger coming from outside the state should be duly traced. RTPCR testing should be done at airports, railway stations, and bus stations. Appreciating the role of Integrated Covid-19 Command Centre (ICCC) and Monitoring Committees in Covid management, the CM said that monitoring committees in villages and urban wards should be reactivated so that tracing, testing and treatment can be done at the earliest. ICCC is to be operated 24×7. The Chief Minister has also directed to re-activate the Covid Help Desk and Day Care Centre in industrial units.
The Gujarat Government on Friday announced a night curfew in eight cities from Saturday. The night curfew will be imposed daily from 11 pm to 5 am in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Gandhinagar, and Junagadh. With seven new cases of Omicron variant of the Covid-19 reported in Gujarat on Thursday, the tally in the state has gone up to30.
Haryana also imposed a night curfew from 11 pm till 5 am from Friday. According to Chief Minister’s Office, gatherings of more than 200 persons in public places and events have been barred. In order to tackle the transmission of the infection, the state government has also barred people, who are not fully vaccinated against Covid-19, from public places in the state after 1 January.
The Odisha government has restricted Christmas and New Year celebrations. The restrictions will be effective from 25 December to 2 January. As per the notification, “Christmas celebration shall be limited to churches with a maximum of 50 persons joining the mass by strictly following Covid-19 protocols and in terms of specific conditions as imposed by District Magistrates/ Municipal Commissioners/ Local Authorities while permitting such mass, if any.”
“Zero Night celebration, Welcome to New Year in hotels, clubs, restaurants, parks, convention halls, Kalyan Mandaps, etc. is completely banned across the State,” the order read.
This comes days after two new Omicron cases were detected in Odisha on Thursday.