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Business News/ News / India/  Omicron has ‘growth advantage’ over Delta, says Centre as tally of new variant nears 1,000
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Omicron has ‘growth advantage’ over Delta, says Centre as tally of new variant nears 1,000

The central govt has written to eight states and UTs to enhance testing, strengthen hospital preparedness, increase the pace and coverage of Covid-19 vaccination drive

A healthcare worker collects a nasal swab sample for the Covid-19 testing (Prateek Kumar)Premium
A healthcare worker collects a nasal swab sample for the Covid-19 testing (Prateek Kumar)

A total of 961 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus have been reported across 22 states and union territories of the country so far, said the Union health ministry on Thursday. Out of this, 320 patients have recovered.

Further, quoting the World Health Organisation (WHO), the government said evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over Delta with a doubling time of two to three days.

Observing a surge in overall cases, it said that Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat are emerging as states and UTs of concern on the basis of weekly Covid-19 cases and positivity rate.

It said that eight districts are reporting over 10% weekly positivity, while 14 districts are reporting between 5-10% positivity.

India's R naught value, which indicates the spread of Covid-19, is 1.22 so cases are increasing, not shrinking, the government said.

The country has reported more than 10,000 daily new Covid-19 cases after 33 days, it said stressing that there is a need for a heightened vigil in view of a sharp increase in infections.

Speaking about the vaccination coverage, the government said 90% of India's adult population has been administered the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 63.5% of people are now fully vaccinated.

However, it mentioned that the durability of immunity post-Covid-19 infection persists for about nine months.

The precautionary dose of the vaccine is primarily to mitigate the severity of infection, hospitalisation and death, it said.

The government said that masking before and after vaccination is a must. It said that earlier and currently circulating strains of coronavirus spread through the same routes and added that treatment guidelines for the infection remain the same.

It said that the whole virus infects an individual in natural settings and added that it elicits cell-mediated immunity and immunological memory.

 

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Published: 30 Dec 2021, 04:27 PM IST
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