Nagpur: 1,700 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in India till now, said the Union Health ministry on Monday, with most of the cases being reported from Maharashtra.
According to a report, Maharashtra additional chief secretary health Dr Pradeep Vyas on Friday predicted that the state would report a total of two lakh active cases of the coronavirus by the third week of January 2022. He said, “Based on the current trend of rising COVID cases in the state, it is expected that we will have about two lakh active cases by the third week of January. Separate instructions are issued for managing these numbers, in case some of them need hospitalization.”
Vyas added that one should not be lulled by the narrative that the third wave or the omicron wave is mild and not fatal.
Meanwhile in Karnataka, the state government said that the third wave of Covid-19 is ‘inescapable’ and is planning to impose harsher curbs in the coming days. This development comes after chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the state government will accept and implement recommendations of the Covid-19 technical advisory committee in full.
The Centre on Friday in a letter to the states said any person who has fever—with or without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache or any other kind of symptoms should be considered as a suspect of Covid-19. The Centre also said if the RT-PCR tests delay results, states should go for the rapid antigen tests.