Omicron scare: Govt cautions against non-essential travel, meetings

New Delhi, December 17

As India’s Omicron Covid variant tally crossed 101 cases on Friday, the government urged people to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings citing rapid rate of transmission of the new variant across the world and the WHO’s recent warning that Omicron would outpace Delta at current rates.

Districts of concern

• 19 with high spread of infection with 5 to 10 positivity — Kerala 9, Mizoram 5; Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Arunachal, Bengal one each
• Five districts with 10% plus—Mizoram 4, Arunachal 1

Vaccine status

• 82.82 crore first doses (86% adults covered)
• 53.72 crore second doses (57.2% adults)
• 136 crore plus doses administered overall

Indian Council of Medical Research DG Balram Bhargava said that with Omicron spreading fast across various parts of the world, “it was time to avoid non-essential travel, mass gatherings and time to observe low intensity festivities in the New Year.”

He also said that 24 districts of concern (19 with weekly Covid positivity rate between 5 and 10 per cent and five with positivity above 10 per cent) needed to ensure restrictive measures until the rate fell below 5 per cent and remained at that level for two weeks. Of the 101 Omicron cases, Maharashtra has 32, Delhi 22, Rajasthan 17, Karnataka, Telangana eight each; and Gujarat and Kerala five each. — TNS