Omicron tally crosses 1,000; states further tighten rules to curb surge

Mumbai/Panaji: India's tally of the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID on Thursday crossed 1,000 on the back of Maharashtra reporting its highest single-day infection with the new strain, as states further tightened measures to deal with the surge in Coronavirus cases.

According to the latest data available from the Centre and the states in the night, the total number of Omicron cases in the country was around 1,200.

Maharashtra reported 198 new cases of the Omicron variant, including 190 in Mumbai alone, the state health department said in a release. With this, the tally of these cases in the state rose to 450.

Of the 198 Omicron cases reported by the National Institute of Virology(NIV) during the day, only 30 have recent international travel history, the release said.

While the daily rise in COVID cases crossed the 13,000 mark after around 49 days, the country also recorded the highest single day rise of Omicron infections with 180 fresh cases, taking the total of those infected with the new strain to 961, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am. It was not clear whether the total number of COVID cases included the Omicron variant.

Giving a break-up of the the 961 Omicron cases in the morning update, the Union Health Ministry said Delhi accounted for 263 cases followed by Maharashtra at 252, Gujarat(97), Rajasthan(69), Kerala (65) and Telangana 62 from among the states with over 50 cases of the highly contagious variant. These were detected across 22 states and union territories so far.

A total of 13,091 new Coronavirus infections were reported in a span of 24 hours on November 11. The death toll has climbed to 4,80,860 with 268 fresh fatalities, the data stated.

Meanwhile, the Centre has urged 19 states and union territories to ramp up Covid testing "in a big way" to identify cases promptly and restrict its spread.

A decline of over 50 per cent has been seen in testing in Arunachal Pradesh (68 per cent), Assam (58 per cent) and Nagaland (52 per cent), it noted.

The other states and UTs where testing is low includes poll-bound Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 144.45 crore on Thursday.

India's R naught value, which indicates spread of COVID-19, is 1.22, the government said on Thursday, warning that cases are increasing, not shrinking, as it highlighted that Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat were emerging as states and UTs of concern on the basis of weekly infections and positivity rate.

Addressing a press conference, NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul said there has been an uptick in Coronavirus cases since the last few days and some states are showing a trend which is going up.

"We believe on the scientific basis R0 is 1.22 as per the available data... so the cases are now increasing, not shrinking. As the scenario emerges, we believe what we are witnessing could be part of the global rise in cases pushed by the Omicron variant... we are already aware that this variant is highly transmissible and that perhaps explains the speed with which it is rising in the world.

"As we have explained, the severity issues are answered and we quote WHO statement — severity (is) hopefully mild but cannot be taken for granted. This is work in progress," he said.

He, however, urged people not to panic, saying, "Because as a nation we are prepared. As a nation we have experience and the massive shield of very high coverage of the vaccine. I repeat, no need to panic. But there is a need to be prepared, to be responsible and disciplined. "

Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal told a media briefing in Delhi on the COVID situation that as far as Omicron is concerned, 3,30,379 cases of the variant and 59 deaths have been reported across 121 countries.

Quoting the WHO, he said consistent evidence shows the variant has a growth advantage over Delta, with a doubling time of 2-3 days. A rapid increase in the incidence of cases has been seen in a number of countries, including those where the variant has become the dominant one, such as the UK and the US, he said.

The rising trend of people without a history of overseas travel contracting the Omicron variant was witnessed in Mumbai.