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An elderly Uttar Pradesh couple detected positive for Omicron had no international travel history. However, both had returned from Maharashtra to Ghaziabad on November 29.
The first Omicron cases in UP took India’s tally to 122 on Saturday.
The WHO simultaneously recorded the presence of Omicron in seven countries in the South-East Asian Region and advised urgent scale up of public health and Covid-appropriate measures to curtail its further spread. “Countries can – and must – prevent the spread of Omicron with the proven health and social measures. Our focus must continue to be to protect the least protected and those at high risk,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, said. Singh said there is an increased risk of re-infection with Omicron.
Covid cases
Overall, on the Covid-19 front, India reported 7,145 new cases on Saturday with 289 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8:00 am on Saturday. The cases have been under 15,000 for the last 51 days, per the Health Ministry. India’s active caseload is at 84,565, the lowest in 569 days. Active cases constituted 0.24 per cent of the country’s total positive cases, which is lowest since March 2020.
The country conducted 12.45 lakh tests in the previous day aggregating to 66.28 crore tests done so far. The weekly positivity rate stood at 0.62 per cent, remaining under 1 per cent for the last 34 days. The daily positivity rate, at 0.57 per cent, has remained under 2 per cent for the last 75 days and under 3 per cent for the 110 days.
Besides UP, new Omicron cases were reported from Delhi and Rajasthan as well.
Mild Or no symptoms
According to State Surveillance Officer of UP, Vikasendu Agrawal, both the Omicron patients were fully vaccinated and remained asymptomatic. “The patients are fine but the cases have started coming, so the public should be cautious. We are awaiting the result of 47 patients whose samples have been sent for genome sequencing. Not just international travellers, we are also doing the genome sequencing of a certain percentage of the general population,” Vikasendu told BusinessLine.
n Rajasthan, a 52-year-old UK returnee teated Omicron positive. He is fully vaccinated with no symptoms, per State Health Ministry sources. With this the State’s Omicron tally has risen to 18.
In Delhi, all the 26 confirmed Omicron cases have so far showed no or very mild symptoms. “All the patients have been asymptomatic barring two-three cases who complained of sore throat or cough. One patient had a mild fever but he also recovered in 24 hours. All the patients were double-vaccinated,” a government official said.
Only a Tanzanian patient aged 57 has co-morbidities. But he too has been asymptomatic and is being monitored by the Health Authorities.
Covid Table:
Source: Health Ministry
Till 8:00 AM on Saturday
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