NEW DELHI Dec 24: The government on Friday said that the world is witnessing the fourth surge in Covid cases and sounded caution against lowering of guard amid the year-end festivities.
Addressing a weekly briefing on the Covid situation, the Union health ministryurged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and ramp up vaccination.
Here are the key points of the government’s briefing:
Omicron scenario
* Out of 183 Omicron cases analysed so far, 91% were fully vaccinated with three having booster shots, 70% were asymptomatic, 61% were males.
* The number of people recovered from Omicron variant is 114.
* Omicron has significant growth advantage over Delta, spreading fast through communities with a doubling time of 1.5 to 3 days, the government said citing World Health Organization’s (WHO) remarks.
* In view of the Omicron variant, the government appealed to the private health sector to be ready as it has to play an important role in managing the pandemic.
* The treatment protocols for Covid-19 & Delta will apply to Omicron. While the evidence emerges, the immune escape potential for Delta is higher & its high transmission rates will lead to high surge cases.
* The world is witnessing the fourth surge in cases and the overall positivity is 6.1%. Therefore, we have to be on guard and we can’t afford to slacken.
* While Europe, North America & Africa are seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases week-on-week, Asia is still witnessing a decline in cases week-on-week.
* 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 vaccination.
* *ICMR and DBT are working together to culture the virus. We are testing the efficacy of the vaccines against the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Covid case positivity
* The top five states with the highest number of active cases at the moment are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Karnataka.
* 20 districts across the country reporting weekly positivity rate between 5 and 10 per cent, two districts over 10 per cent.
* Covid-19 case positivity rate in Kerala and Mizoram is much higher than national average. It is a cause for concern.
Vaccination and preparedness
* 89% of the eligible population in India have received at least the first vaccine dose. 61% of the eligible population has received the second dose.
* On a policy for booster dose, the government said that deliberations are under way and it is reviewing scientific data.
* 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.
* 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 for concern is 11 states where vaccination coverage is less than the national average.