India on Thursday registered 13,154 fresh Covid cases and 268 deaths in a span of 24 hours. With the addition of the new deaths, the total death toll reached 4,80,860
The Omicron infection tally has also climbed to 961 across the nation. However, out of total Omicron positive, 320 have been discharged from hospitals. So far 22 states have reported Omicron cases, said the Union health ministry
New Delhi:
The Centre on Thursday wrote letters to eight states and union territories (UTs) over the rise in number of new Covid cases. The letter has been addressed to those states reporting increased numbers of Covid and Omicron variant cases.
The letter has been written to the health secretaries of Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan directed these states to take measures as there has been an increase in Covid cases and lessening of doubling time.
These states have been told to enhance testing, strengthen hospital-level preparedness, increase pace and coverage of vaccination.
The Centre has also directed the states to enhance the testing in a focused manner with maintaining the ratio between RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). The states have been advised to go for proactive contact tracing and isolation and quarantine of the contacts of positive cases, their testing and follow up.
The states have also been told to speed up the Covid vaccination coverage along with enforcing the Covid Appreciate Behaviour.
Meanwhile, India on Thursday registered 13,154 fresh Covid cases and 268 deaths in a span of 24 hours. With the addition of the new deaths, the total death toll reached 4,80,860.
The Omicron infection tally has also climbed to 961 across the nation. However, out of total Omicron positive, 320 have been discharged from hospitals. So far 22 states have reported Omicron cases, said the Union health ministry.
Mumbai today reported more than 2,500 new cases which translates into more than 82 per cent rise since yesterday.
Maharashtra reported 5,368 fresh COVID cases (a jump of 1,468 over yesterday’s numbers), 1,193 recoveries, and 22 deaths today, taking active cases to 18,217.The number of #Omicron cases rises to 450, with the state recording 198 cases of the variant today,
Aditya Thackeray said, “Last week we were reporting 150 cases per day, now we are reporting around 2,000 cases per day. Mumbai may cross 2000 per day cases today.”
Delhi Thursday recorded 1,313 fresh Covid cases, the highest single-day spike since May 26, as the positivity rate mounted to 1.73 per cent, with Health Minister Satyendar Jain cautioning that the new coronavirus variant Omicron is gradually spreading in the community.
The daily case count breached the 1,000-mark after a gap of seven months. On May 28, the city had logged 1,141 cases.
Community spread of Omicron can overwhelm hospitals: Experts
Senior doctors in Delhi on Thursday warned that though the data collected so far suggests that the Omicron variant of coronavirus causes mild infection, there is a need to remain watchful as a community spread can still strain hospitals.
The elderly and those having comorbidities are at serious risk, they said.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said Omicron is gradually spreading in the community and the new, fast-spreading variant of concern has been found in 54 per cent of the latest samples analysed in the national capital.
He also said that the variant will only spread further in the coming days.
Dr Piyush Jain, Medicine Department, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, said, ”Data from some foreign countries shows that the Omicron variant causes mild infection in most of the cases. But we do not have the data from India yet.”
However, it can still put the elderly and those having comorbidities at serious risk.
Dr Jugal Kishore, head of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital said people who are ”immunocompromised, or have HIV or secondary infections need to take care of themselves and not step out… take regular medications and monitor their sleep cycle.” Sumit Ray, head of department of Critical Care Medicine at Holy Family Hospital said the sheer number of Omicron cases can overwhelm hospitals.
”We have to be watchful. In South Africa, there have been fewer hospitalisations (due to Omicron). Most of the hospitalisations in other foreign countries are because of Delta. But if the number of infections is 2 lakh per day, like in France, and the hospitalisations due to Omicron are one-seventh or one-eighth of that number, it’s a fairly high number,” he said.