Amid Covid-19 surge in India, home secretary to chair review meeting today

Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla will be chairing a review meeting on Thursday evening over the rising coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in India, said officials of the home ministry familiar with the development. Notably, several states have sounded an alarm over the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is said to be highly mutated and is responsible for a large chunk of infections in the country right now.

India reported almost 500 new Omicron infections on Thursday as the total tally of this latest variant of Covid-19 touched 2,630, according to the Union health ministry update. The new variant of coronavirus has now reached 26 states, the health ministry update further showed.

Maharashtra continues to be the leading contributor with 797 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi (465), Rajasthan (236), Kerala (234), Karnataka (226), and Gujarat (204).

The number of daily new Covid-19 infections in the country, too, saw a huge spike on Thursday as more than 90,000 people tested positive (90,928 exactly) for the viral illness in the last 24 hours, much higher than the 58,097 cases reported on Wednesday. The active caseload also witnessed an increase and stood at 285,401, according to the latest data from the Union health ministry. Meanwhile, the number of Omicron cases witnessed a significant increase and was recorded at 2,630.

The health ministry said that active cases accounted for less than 1 per cent and recorded at 0.81 per cent of the total confirmed infections in the country.

According to Balram Bhargava, the director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Omicron is currently the predominant circulating strain in India. "Mass gatherings should be avoided to lower the speed of this spread," he advised during a health ministry briefing the evening prior.

Meanwhile, national capital Delhi has decided to impose a weekend curfew. No non-essential movement is being allowed in the city during the weekend curfew and as per the latest Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) orders, government offices, barring essential services, have implemented work from home for employees while private offices are operating at 50 per cent capacity.