India's Omicron tally stands at 25, all have mild symptoms

New Delhi, Dec 10: India's tally of Omicron coronavirus variant on Friday rose to 25 after the government added two fresh cases of the new variant from Gujarat. However, none of the patients have reported severe symptoms.

"Overall 25 Omicron cases in the country so far. All detected cases have mild symptoms. Less than 0.04% of total variants detected," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Union Health Ministry said at a briefing.

"2 countries had reported Omicron cases till 24th Nov. Now 59 countries have reported cases of Omicron. These 59 countries have reported 2,936 Omicron cases. Besides this 78,054 probable cases detected- their genome sequencing is underway," he said.

Speaking on the government measures, Aggarwal said surveillance, effective screening, monitoring of international travellers and health infrastructure upgradation is being done. States have been notified to increase their surveillance and actively test passengers arriving from other countries.

WHO highlighted that public health measures should be abided by on a continual basis, besides vaccination. Adequate precautions have to be followed...Laxity in public health measures leading to a surge in cases in Europe," he said.

"Regular meetings are being organised to keep a watch on global scenario and Covid scene in India with a focus on Omicron. We need help to not spread panic. District level restrictions to be implemented where positivity over 5%," said Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR.

"As far as protection capability is concerned, we are now operating at a risky and unacceptable level. Mask usage is declining. We have to remember that both vaccines and masks are important. We should learn from the global situation..., " said Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, NITI Aayog.