Africa-Press – Gambia. India reported 7,081 new Covid-19 cases, 7,469 recoveries, and 264 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday morning. The Ministry shared that the active cases account for less than 1% of total cases which is the lowest since March 2020. India’s active caseload currently stands at 83,913 which is the lowest in 570 days whereas the recovery rate is at 98.38%.With three more people testing positive for Omicron variant in Maharashtra, and Karnataka and Kerala recording six and four Omicron cases respectively, India’s total tally of the new variant rose to 126 on Saturday. The World Health Organisation (WHO) informed on Saturday that the Omicron coronavirus variant has been reported in 89 countries and the number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission. The WHO further added that Omicron is spreading faster in countries which have high levels of population immunity. However, it is unclear if this is due to the virus’ ability to evade immunity, its increased transmissibility or a combination of both.The government of India has been time and again warning people to avoid mass gatherings and travelling, unless absolutely necessary. The state governments have also jumped to action with some implementing new guidelines and some imposing lockdowns as a precautionary measure. The Delhi government on Saturday announced that it had converted four private hospitals into Omicron dedicated centres. These hospitals are Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Max (Saket), Fortis (Vasant Kunj) & Batra Hospital (Tughlakabad). A total of 5 hospitals in Delhi, including LNJP hospital, will now provide the treatment for the variant. Delhi Chief Minister on Saturday assured that the state government is ready to tackle the Omicron variant of Coronavirus. He advised people not to panic saying even though the variant was said to spread faster than the previous ones, its symptoms were mild. He also said that Delhi might not face another wave of infections, since according to the Sero survey conducted by the Delhi government, 96 per cent of the state population was found to have antibodies and a majority of them were vaccinated, news agency PTI reported.
Taking cognisance of the rising number of Omicron cases, the Tamil Nadu government requested the Centre on Saturday to issue further set of guidelines on testing international passengers arriving in the state after a person from a ‘non-risk country’ recently tested Omicron positive. According to news agency PTI, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Dr T S Selvavinayagam in his letter to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Rajesh Bhushan requested that international passengers arriving in Tamil Nadu should undergo mandatory post-arrival testing of Covid-19 as against the current practice of testing only those passengers who arrive from ‘at risk’ countries. In other development, drone services have been launched to supply Covid-19 vaccines to remote areas of Jawahar Taluka in Palghar, Maharashtra.
Internationally speaking, Egypt and Ukraine announced their first cases of Omicron variant on Saturday. Mexico recorded 2,530 new coronavirus cases and 268 additional deaths on Saturday, as per the health ministry data. Germany logged 6,764,188 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 108,053 Covid-19 deaths.India’s Omicron COVID count rose to 151 on Sunday after Maharashtra reported six more cases while a 45-year-old NRI and a teenage boy, who recently arrived in Gujarat from the United Kingdom, also tested positive for the variant. According to central and state officials, omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories — Maharashtra (54), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (20), Gujarat (9), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1). Six persons tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Maharashtra on Sunday, raising the state’s tally of such cases to 54, the health department said. While two of these patients had a history of travel to Tanzania, two others had returned from England and one from the Middle East. All five of them are fully vaccinated. Another patient is a five-year-old boy from Junnar in Pune who is a close contact of Dubai travellers from Junnar, it said in a statement.
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