India: Omicron spreading rapidly, stay alert, avoid panic, Modi says in meeting with chief ministers

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that Omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading rapidly as compared to other variants adding that there is a need to stay alert but also ensure that panic is not created.

“Compared to previous variants Omicron is rapidly spreading...it’s more transmissible...Our health experts are assessing the situation. It’s clear that we have to stay alert, but also ensure to avoid panic,” the Prime Minister said during the virtual meeting with Chief Minsters of the states over COVID-19 situation.

To contain the spread of the virus, the Prime Minister said the “pre-emptive, pro-active and collective approach” adopted by the federal and state governments is the “mantra of victory” this time as well.

Modi also said that there is a need to counter rumours about COVID-19 vaccination and usage of masks.

“We need to counter any attempt of spreading rumours against vaccination. Several times, we get to hear that ‘getting infected with COVID despite vaccination, what’s its use’. Even for masks, such rumours are spread that it does not benefit. There is a need to counter such rumours,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister further said that in the fight against COVID, the country has nearly two years of experience.

“We must ensure that financial activities aren’t affected and we must keep up our growth. To ensure the same, we must focus on local containment. We must increase testing in the areas from where more cases are emerging,” Modi said.

Home isolation

The Prime Minister also said maximum treatment of COVID patients must be done in home isolation. “For this, it is important to follow home isolation guideline and protocols and improvise as per the situation,” he said.

“During home isolation, the better the facility of tracking and treatment, the lesser there will be the need to go to hospitals,” the PM said.

India on Thursday reported 247,417 fresh COVID-19 cases. The new cases reported on Thursday are about 27 per cent higher as compared to yesterday’s figures. On Wednesday, the country had seen 194,720 new cases.

Meanwhile, the Omicron caseload has climbed to 5,488, of which 2,162 patients have been discharged from hospitals.

So far, a total of 28 states have detected the new highly-transmissible variant, the Ministry said.

The recovery of 84,825 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally to 34,715,361. Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 95.59 per cent.

Also in the same period, a total of 1,886,935 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the overall figure to over 6.973 billion.

While the weekly positivity rate has climbed to 10.80 per cent amid the sudden resurgence, the daily positivity rate stood at 13.11 per cent.

With the administration of over 7.6 million vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s Covid inoculation coverage reached 1.55 billion as of Thursday morning.

Amid surging Covid-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with the chief ministers of all states on Thursday at 4.30pm via video conferencing on the Covid situation.

This is the first meeting of the prime minister with the chief ministers of all states this year. PM Modi has held several meetings with chief ministers last year.

Earlier on Wednesday, Dr VK Paul, a Niti Aayog member, has also cautioned that the infection caused by the Omicron variant should not be considered common cold and people should not take it lightly.

“Omicron is replacing Delta variant of Covid-19 as it is highly transmissible. It should be considered as the common cold. Normally, the transmission or expansion of the pandemic would take longer but this time it has been very rapid because of the high transmissibility,” he said at the Health Ministry media briefing.

Mentioning a steep surge in coronavirus cases across India, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry said, “A sharp surge in Covid cases in India with the active cases 955,319 today. Emerging states of concern (reporting surge in Covid cases) are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Gujarat.”

“Emerging states of concerns reporting high positive rates- Maharashtra with a rate positivity rate of 22.39 per cent, West Bengal 32.18 per cent, Delhi 23.1 per cent and Uttar Pradesh 4.47 per cent,” he added.

The Prime Minister had also chaired a meeting to review the Covid-19 situation in the country on January 9, through a video conference. During that review meeting, PM Modi had stressed the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level. He had asked officials to maintain coordination regarding this with the states.

India has witnessed a surge in Covid-19 cases in the recent past.