Omicron: Cases In India increase from 5 to 21 Overnight

The new variant Omicron is spreading quite rapidly in India too as the country’s total tally is 21 today, which was 5 yesterday. A whopping 17 fresh cases of Omicron in Maharashtra(7), Rajasthan(9) and Delhi(1) have been reported.

Going into details, a woman and her two daughters who travelled from Nigeria, her brother and his two daughters near Pune and one male who travelled from Finland have tested positive for the new variant in Maharashtra. And nine patients in Jaipur are from the same family and have recently returned from South Africa.

In Delhi, a 37-year-old man who arrived from Tanzania tested positive for the Omicron variant earlier today. The first two cases of Omicron in India were reported from Karnataka earlier this week. The other two cases were detected in Gujarat and Maharashtra. With seven new cases, the Omicron cases in Maharashtra have risen to 8.

“PM sahib, please stop the flights”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had urged. The Chief Minister had also written a letter to the Prime Minister saying the same. Currently, International airports across India are intensively screening and testing all passengers from ‘at-risk’ countries. As per the new rules, all passengers from such countries have to take RT-PCR tests on arrival.

How is Telangana taking measures?

As the ”Omicron” cases rise, a surveillance mechanism has been intensified at the international airport in Hyderabad. So far, no cases of the Omicron variant have been reported in Telangana but it would not be surprising if the new variant gets reported in any states, including Telangana.

The Telangana government has geared up for a possible third wave of cases and has intensified the vaccination exercise. Counting from December 1, as many as 979 international travellers from ‘at-risk’ countries arrived at Hyderabad international airport and on Saturday 70 international travellers came.

RT-PCR tests were conducted and 13 of them were found positive for COVID-19. The samples were soon sent for genome sequencing in view of the Omicron variant threat. The results are awaited. Also, those 13 who tested positive have been shifted to the designated health facilities. The state government has also intensified vaccination.

Director of Public Health (DPH) Dr G Srinivasa Rao said “We are expecting a little surge in mid-January or February in our state or country. Telangana government has created increased infrastructure in hospitals and as part of it, 27,000 oxygen beds were created in the public health system and there are a total of 66,000 beds in the state, including 6K beds exclusively for children”.