India records 122 Omicron cases in last 24 hours, highest rise so far
India recorded 122 cases of the Omicron variant in the last 24 hours on Friday, the highest so far, pushing its tally in the country to 358. Of which, 114 have recovered.
A worrying point from the Health Ministry briefing on Friday was that 91 per cent of all Omicron patients in India were fully vaccinated, and seven per cent had one shot. Interestingly, 44 cases out of the 183 Omicron cases analysed had no foreign travel history, but the majority of them were contacts of foreign travellers.
The travel history of the remaining 18 cases is not known.
Uttar Pradesh has decided to impose night curfew from Saturday. Haryana imposed night curfew from Friday night. Maharashtra is expected to follow soon.
The Ministry said the world is witnessing the fourth surge in Covid-19 cases and the world recorded over 9 lakh Covid-19 cases on December 23, which indicates a fresh wave of the pandemic and cautioning people against dropping the guard, particularly during Christmas and New Year festivities.
Briefing mediapersons, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India’s Omicron caseload crossed 100 exactly one week ago and it crossed 200 on Tuesday.
Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of 88 cases of the Omicron variant, followed by Delhi 67, Telangana 38, Tamil Nadu 34, Karnataka 31 and Gujarat 30. Besides, Haryana, Odisha, J&K, Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Chandigarh, Ladakh and Uttarakhand have confirmed cases of the new strain.
Bhushan said 61 per cent of the Omicron cases analysed were male and 39 per cent were females.
“About the vaccination status, 87 patients were fully vaccinated and out of these, three were also inoculated with the booster dose. Seven patients were unvaccinated and two were partially vaccinated and 16 were ineligible to take the jab. The vaccination status of 73 patients is unknown,” he said.
The Ministry said the case positivity rate in Kerala and Mizoram is much higher than the national average and a cause for concern. It said 20 districts across the country were reporting a weekly positivity rate between 5 and 10 per cent and two over 10 per cent.