India’s tally of Omicron cases now 161, most cases ’mild’

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec 20, 2021: India now has 161 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

"We are monitoring the situation daily with experts. With our experience during the first and second waves, to ensure that we do not face problems when variant spreads, we have arranged a buffer stock of important medicines," the minister added.

 

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also said, "Under PM Modi’s leadership, with the efforts of our healthcare workers, 88 per cent of first doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered, 58 per cent of second doses administered so far. Majority of the population in India is vaccinated today."

The 161 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in 12 states across the country.

Sources told India Today that not even a single individual found infected with Omicron is in a serious condition. All cases are ’mild’, sources said, adding that 42 of the individuals have been discharged after undergoing treatment.

Maharashtra accounts for 54 of the confirmed cases of Omicron variant, followed by Delhi with 32, Telangana with 20, Rajasthan with 17, Gujarat with 13, Kerala with 11, Karnataka with eight, Uttar Pradesh with two and Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Chandigarh with one each.

Genomic sequencing of as many as 31,000 samples is being conducted every month in 38 labs across the country.Over 60,000 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant have been detected across the globe with the United Kingdom accounting for 50 per cent of those cases.A ’highly transmissible’ strain termed as a ’variant of concern’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Omicron was first reported in South Africa on November 24. The first two cases of this variant in India were detected in Karnataka on December 2.

Courtesy:India Today