India now has 21 cases of Omicron

Ground Report | New Delhi: Omicron cases in India; Seventeen more people tested positive for the Omicron variant of the new coronavirus in India on Sunday, bringing the tally to 21. While Delhi reported its first case of Omicron infection, nine people, including four members of a family, were infected with the variant in Rajasthan and another seven people in Maharashtra.

This came a day after the Center's Har Ghar Dastak (door-to-door) vaccination campaign recorded another milestone, as more than 10 million doses of the Covid vaccine were administered in a single day on Saturday, the sixth time. up to now. The fully vaccinated adult population in the country has exceeded 50%, even when cumulative vaccination coverage has exceeded 1.27 billion.

On Twitter, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, praised India's achievement. “It is a moment of great pride as more than 50 percent of the eligible population is now fully vaccinated. Together we will win the battle against Covid-19, "he said.

The first patient to test positive for Omicron in Delhi is a Ranchi resident who had flown from Tanzania to Doha and from there to Delhi on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2. He stayed in Johannesburg, South Africa, for a week, authorities said, as per the report of PTI. The patient has been isolated at Narayan Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (LNJP), where more than a dozen suspected Covid cases are being monitored. 

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A senior LNJP Hospital staff member said: “All cases have mild symptoms. We are watching closely and the state government has put us on alert to be ready to increase capacity if necessary. "

Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Kumar Jain said that since Delhi receives the largest number of international flights, it is more vulnerable.

The nine people who tested positive in Jaipur include four family members who recently returned from South Africa. With seven new cases in the Pune district, a total of eight Omicron cases have been detected in the state so far. (Omicron cases in India)

Meanwhile, the agencies reported that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization is likely to discuss the administration of an 'additional' dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to immunosuppressed people and pediatric vaccination at its meeting scheduled for Monday.

Although states are on edge, there are no plans yet to have separate chambers for suspected Omicron cases. “It is neither practical nor necessary. It is not possible to opt for the sequencing of the genome of each patient with positive Covid to know which variant has infected them. From a medical point of view, there is no need to isolate these patients, ”said Rahul Pandit, director of critical care at Fortis Hospital in Mumbai and a member of the National Covid-19 Task Force.

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Experts have said that the Omicron situation will be cleared up later this year. Mumbai is now isolating all Covid-positive travelers at SevenHills Hospital, run by civic bodies, with more to be added if the need arises, according to civic authorities.

Hospitals that admit patients with Covid are even more attentive to travel history and keep authorities informed. Maharashtra is on track to complete all first dose vaccinations by the end of this month.

The Uttar Pradesh government is in the process of designating district-level hospitals to treat potential cases of the new variant, with particular emphasis on Lucknow, Varanasi, Noida and Ghaziabad, as they account for the majority of inbound international travelers. The state has also set up genome sequencing facilities at three Lucknow hospitals to detect Omicron.

Southern states such as Tamil Nadu (TN) and Kerala have not developed separate plans, other than following the national standard operating procedure. “There is no need for a separate Omicron hospital. These are basically Covid-positive patients and a separate area within the Covid hospital, where they can isolate themselves, is more than enough now. We follow national standard guidelines, ”said TS Selvavinayagam, director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at TN. (Omicron cases in India)

In Tamil Nadu, three international air travelers, two from the UK and one from Singapore tested positive at Tiruchirappalli and Chennai airports, and their samples were subjected to genome sequencing.

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