The government has said 80.98 crore people have been administered first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine which is 86.2 percent of the adult population of the country. As many as 50.21 crore people have been given second dose which is 53.5 percent of adult population.
India has till December 9 reported 12 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 with all of them showing mild symptoms, the Health Ministry said amid growing concerns over the new strain of the virus. These cases have been detected in five state – Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka, the Ministry said.
“Overall, 25 Omicron cases (are reported) in the country so far. All detected cases have mild symptoms. Less than 0.04 percent of total variants are detected,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said during a press conference on December 10.
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The government also said that of the 93 positive COVID-19 cases reported since December 1, as many as 83 were from at-risk countries of which 13 were found to be positive for the Omicron variant.
“Two countries had reported Omicron cases till November 24. Now 59 countries have reported 2,936 Omicron cases. Besides these, 78,054 probable cases are detected- their genome sequencing is underway,” Agarwal said.
The government said 80.98 crore people have been administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine which is 86.2 percent of the adult population of the country. As many as 50.21 crore people have been given the second dose which is 53.5 percent of the adult population, according to the officials.
The Health Ministry officials said that regular meetings were being organised to keep a watch on the global scenario and the Indian scenario of COVID-19 with a focus on the Omicron variant. “We need help to not spread panic. District-level restrictions are to be implemented where positivity is over 5 percent,” Balram Bhargava, director general of ICMR said during the conference.
On the overall COVID-19 situation, Agarwal said that last week, the country had an overall positivity rate of 0.73 percent. He said more than 43 percent of daily cases were reported from Kerala alone.
The governments said only 2 states reported more than 10,000 cases while 19 districts reported high case positivity between 5 and 10 percent. As many as 8 districts have more than 10 percent case positivity, it said.
“Less than 10,000 cases (were reported) in last 14 days. Active cases are highest in two states- Kerala and Maharashtra with over 43 percent active cases in the former and over 10 percent in the latter,” he said.
The government said compliance to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour was declining with an increase in vaccination rates.
As far as protection capability is concerned, the government said people were behaving at a risky and unacceptable level. “Mask usage is declining. We have to remember that both vaccines and masks are important. We should learn from the global situation,” Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, NITI Aayog, said during the conference.The government said surveillance, effective screening, monitoring of international travellers and health infrastructure upgradation are being done. States have been notified to increase their surveillance and actively test passengers arriving from other countries, it said.
