New Delhi: India continued to witness a massive spike in daily COVID-19 cases and reported 37,379 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Tuesday (January 4, 2022) morning.
The new COVID-19 cases, fuelled by the Omicron variant, is the most since early September and has taken the country’s active caseload to 1,71,830. An increase of 26,248 infections was recorded in the active caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.24 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.05 per cent.
According to the Health Ministry, India also recorded 11,007 recoveries and 124 deaths in the last 24 hours.
India has so far seen 3,43,06,414 recoveries and 4,82,017 coronavirus related fatalities.
India has so far reported 1,892 cases of the Omicron variant across 23 states and UTs, of which, 766 patients have recovered. Maharashtra with 568 Omicron infections, Delhi with 382, Kerala with 185 and Rajasthan with 174 cases have been the worst-hit states in the country.
Even as India is seeing a steep rise in Covid cases driven by infections caused by the Omicron variant, there`s an urgent need to scale up preventive measures such as masks, vaccinations, social distancing and not to be complacent.
India on Monday reported 1,700 cases of Omicron variant from 23 states and Union territories, while also logging 33,750 new Covid-19 cases in a span of 24 hours, taking the active caseload to 1,45,582.
According to the latest guidelines by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the precautions and steps to be taken remain the same as before. “It is essential to mask yourself properly, take both doses of vaccines (if not yet vaccinated), maintain social distancing and maintain good ventilation to the maximum possible,” the guidelines said.
Meanwhile, the Centre has advised states to treat fever, and sore throat as Omicron symptoms. “Any person who has a fever with or without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, or other symptoms should be considered as a suspected case of Covid-19 unless proven otherwise,” it wrote in a letter to states.
The letter by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava urged Chief Secretaries of all states/UTs to set up round the clock functional RAT booths at different locations, engage medical and paramedical staff, and encourage the use of home test kits.
“Early testing of suspect patients and their contacts and isolating them expeditiously are one of the key measures to curb transmission of SARSCoV-2, causative agent of Covid-19,” it added.
The Centre also advised states to go for Rapid Antigen Tests or RATs, if results from RT-PCR tests get delayed. Meanwhile, doctors at the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital said that multi-vitamins and paracetamol were the only treatment provided to Omicron patients.
To fight the rising cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last week, announced that the Covid-19 vaccination will start January 3 onward for children in the 15-18 age group.
