Omicron variant : India tally jumps to 32

New Delhi: Amid global alarm over the new strain of the coronavirus, India's total cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has jumped to 32 on December 10, Friday. While the Union government said earlier in the day that 25 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected in the country so far, seven more cases, three from Mumbai and four from Pimpri Chinchwad have reportedly been detected in Maharashtra since then.

According to Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Public Health Department, Maharashtra the state leads the chart with 17 Omicron cases.

"Today's three patients from Mumbai are male of 48,25 and 37 years of age having recent travel history of travel to Tanzania, UK and South Africa-Nairobi. Other four patients from Pimpri Chinchwad are contacts of Nigerian women who have already confirmed the case in previous reports," a statement from IDSP, Public Health Department Maharashtra mentioned.

Mentioning about the 25 cases earlier detected, the Union Health Ministry informed that none of the patients have reported severe symptoms, the government said on Friday.

"All the 25 cases detected earlier have mild symptoms. Omicron cases account for less than 0.04 per cent of total variants detected," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Union Health Ministry said at a briefing.

Warning against decline in mask usage and safety norms, Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog said, "WHO is warning against the decline in mask usage. Global scene of Omicron is disturbing... We are now operating at a risky and unacceptable level. We have to remember that both vaccines and masks are important,"

Further adding to it Lav Agrawal informed that 93 international passengers have tested positive for COVID-19 since Decmber 1st out of which, 83 are from countries that have been designated as "at-risk" countries.

"Two countries had reported Omicron cases till November 24th. Now, 59 countries have reported cases of Omicron. These 59 countries have reported 2,936 Omicron cases. Besides this, 78,054 probable cases have also been detected - their genome sequencing is underway," the official said.

Maharashtra leads the chart with 17 Omicron cases, followed by Rajasthan with nine, globally there are 2303 cases of Omicron variant.

India also decided to keep scheduled international passenger flights suspended till January 31 next year.

The DGCA issued a circular on Thursday, saying, "The competent authority has decided to extend the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger services to and from India till 2359 hours of January 31, 2022."

The Union government has asked states and Union Territories to ensure adequate buffer stock of the eight critical drugs used for clinical treatment of COVID-19 and advised them to review the readiness of hospitals to deal with any possible surge in cases.