New Delhi, Dec. 25: India has reported a total of 415 Omicron cases, the Health Ministry said this morning. At least 115 have recovered, it said. Maharashtra has the highest number of Omicron infection with 108, followed by Delhi with 79. Gujarat has 43 cases and Telangana 38. Kerala has a total of 37 Omicron cases, followed by Tamil Nadu with 34. No state in the north-east has reported any Omicron case.
On Friday, the centre had said of 358 cases of Omicron reported till then, 183 were analysed and it was found that 91 of them were fully vaccinated with three having received booster doses while 70 per cent were asymptomatic.
The rise of the Omicron variant has also heralded another pandemic-tinged Christmas for billions across the world, with Santa’s arrival and longed-for family reunions overshadowed by the prospect of yet more COVID-19 restrictions.
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Gatherings of five or more will not be allowed in Maharashtra between 9 pm and 6 am, the state government has said. Haryana and Delhi have also tightened restrictions this Christmas, though Delhi has allowed places of worship to remain open.
The country’s COVID-19 count rose to 3,47,79,815 with 7,189 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, while active cases have declined to 77,032, according to data updated at 8 am.
The number of dead climbed to 4,79,520 with 387 more fatalities, data showed. The daily rise in coronavirus cases has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 58 days now.
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The active cases have declined to 77,032 or 0.22 per cent of total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.40 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the Health Ministry said.
Omicron alert: Centre sends multi-disciplinary teams to 10 states
In view of rising concerns over the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the Centre has decided to send special multi-disciplinary teams to 10 states and Union territories, which are either reporting a high number of infections from the new strain or have a low pace of the vaccination against coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
“In view of rapid surge in cases and deaths because of Covid-19, as reported by various news channels, the state governments, and noted in internal reviews, it has been seen that the number of Omicron cases have emerged in some states,” the Union ministry of health and family welfare said in a letter, tweeted by the ANI news agency.
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The 10 states where the central multidisciplinary teams are to be deployed are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab.
“It has also been observed that the pace of Covid-19 vaccination in these states is less than the national average,” it added. “In wake of this situation, a decision has been taken to deploy multi-disciplinary central teams to 10 identified states, some of which are either reporting an increasing number of Omicron and Covid-19 cases or slow vaccination pace (list enclosed), to aid the efforts of the state and district administration for management of Covid-19.”
The central teams shall be stationed in the allotted states for a period of three to five days and will work along with state health authorities, read the health ministry letter.
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As per the ministry, these teams will specifically look at areas of contact tracing, including surveillance, containment operations, and Covid-19 testing, including the sending of adequate samples from clusters to the INSACOG network for genome sequencing.
The teams will also be responsible for the enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour, availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics including ambulances, ventilators, medical oxygen, etc, and Covid-19 vaccination progress in the states.
The state-level central teams will assess the situation, suggest remedial actions, and submit a report every evening by 7pm on the public health activities being undertaken to both the central and state government, the memorandum added.
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