Treading cautiously in the backdrop of two dozen Omicron cases detected from various places across the country, the Centre on Wednesday told the States that such patients would be treated only in designated Covid facilities with separate isolation areas.
“It has to be ensured that no cross infection takes place and adequate precautions are taken by healthcare workers in these facilities to prevent transmission among other patients and healthcare workers,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in a letter to States and union territories (UTs). Bhushan advised them to regularly review and ensure that samples of positive cases of international travellers and their contacts as well as from emerging hot spots are promptly submitted to INSACOG labs for genome sequencing according to protocol.
Further to contain spread, it is imperative that states and UTs follow a mission mode and focused approach of quickly tracking primary and secondary contacts of positive cases and facilitate testing for them, he said.
In the latest weekly Covid-19 epidemiological update, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that given the predominant circulation of the Delta variant in many countries, it is too early to draw a conclusion on the impact of the new Omicron variant on the global epidemiology of Covid-19.
The global health body further highlighted that while several crucial questions about Omicron remain unanswered, more data will continue to emerge in the coming weeks.
At the same time, WHO has also presented an update on the current situation on four key issues on Omicron — transmissibility, clinical severity, risk of reinfection and the potential impact of the vaccines.
The WHO said that in South Africa, where the new variant of concern (VOC) was first reported, fresh Covid-19 cases have continued to surge. As many as 62,021 new cases were reported between November 29 and December 5, a 111 per cent increase compared to the previous week. More significantly, the country has reported an increase in the test positivity rate from 1.2 per cent the week beginning November 7 to 22.4 % in the week beginning December 2.
Meanwhile, India reported 8,439 Covid-19 positive cases on Tuesday, taking its toll to 3,46,56,822. The count of active cases declined to 93,733, the lowest in 555 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The death toll due to the disease rose to 4,73,952, with 195 daily deaths being recorded.