World witnessing Covid-19 fourth wave, 144 recovered out of 358 Omicron cases in India: Health Ministry

New Delhi, Dec 24: The Union Health Ministry on Friday said that the world is witnessing the fourth wave of Covid-19 as the cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus is on a rise in the country.

In a press briefing, the health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that the Centre has already informed the states to impose restrictions like night curfew and restricting large gatherings as the cases of Omicron reached 358 on Friday.

Check out the key pointers of the press meet:

• The predominant strain in India is Delta including the recently identified clusters. Therefore, we need to continue with the same strategy of COVID appropriate behaviour and ramping up of vaccination: Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG-ICMR, on vaccine booster shots.
• ICMR and DBT are working together to culture the virus. We are testing the efficacy of the vaccines against the Omicron variant of COVID19: Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG-ICMR.
• WHO on Dec 7 said that #Omicron has a significant growth advantage over Delta which means, it has greater transmissibility. Omicron cases double within 1.5-3 days, so we have to remain vigilant with covid appropriate behaviour: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on COVID-19.
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare preemptively advised States on 21st December -to impose restrictions like night curfew, regulating large gatherings. increase bed capacity and other logistics and strict enforcement of COVID appropriate behavior: Union Health Secretary
• 89% of the adult population has received the first dose and 61% of the eligible population has received the second dose of COVID19 vaccines: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.
• Today, we have 18,10,083 isolation beds, 4,94,314 O2 supported beds, 1,39,300 ICU beds, 24,057 pediatric ICU beds and 64,796 pediatric non-ICU beds available nationally: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.
• 358 Omicron cases in 17 States/UTs of India. The number of persons recovered is 114: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on COVID19.
• The top five states with the highest number of active cases, at the moment, are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on COVID19.
• The world is witnessing the fourth surge & and the overall positivity is 6.1%. Therefore, we have to be on guard and we can't afford to slacken: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on COVID19.
• While Europe, North America & Africa are seeing an increase in COVID19 cases week-on-week, Asia is still witnessing a decline in cases week-on-week: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on COVID19.
• There was a 10 fold increase in oxygen demand from 1st wave to 2nd wave. Thus, 18,800 metric tonnes of medical oxygen per day has been arranged for; cause of concern is 11 states where vaccination coverage is less than the national avg: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.