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Huge crowds seen at Sarojini market in Delhi on Thursday. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a review meeting on the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country amid rising concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant. The meeting was attended by senior officials and experts.
Earlier this week, in a communication to states and Union Territories, the Centre had said the Omicron variant was at least thrice more transmissible than the Delta variant, and asked them to activate war rooms, keep analysing even small trends and surges and keep taking strict and prompt containment action at the district and local levels.
India has recorded 236 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 across 16 states and UTs till 8 am Thursday, of which 104 people have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry data. Maharashtra has recorded the maximum number of Omicron cases at 65, followed by Delhi at 64, Telangana 24, Karnataka 19, Rajasthan 21 and Kerala 15.
Till Thursday 8 am, the country recorded 7,495 new coronavirus infections and 434 fresh fatalities taking the total tally of cases to 3,47,65,976 and the toll to 4,78,759.
Consider local curbs, ramp up vaccination exponentially: Centre to states
With the festive season around the corner, the Centre on Thursday after reviewing the Covid-19 situation across states, asked respective governments to consider imposing curbs and restrictions at the local level.
The Centre also advised states slated to hold Assembly polls in the next few months to ramp up Covid vaccination exponentially to protect the vulnerable population given the steady rise in Omicron cases. States and Union territories have also been advised to be vigilant and monitor case positivity, doubling rate and cluster of new cases besides imposing curbs at local level.
The states were also asked to ensure door-to-door case search in containment areas, test all vulnerable people and conduct the right proportion of RT-PCR: RAT (at least 60:40) tests daily.
Night curfew in Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced night curfew in the state from 11 pm to 5 am from Thursday as a precautionary measure to stop the spread of Omicron and a third wave of Covid-19.
Maharashtra logs 1,179 cases, 17 deaths; Omicron tally at 88
Maharashtra Thursday reported 1,179 new Covid-19 cases and 17 deaths in the last 24 hours. Of this, 602 cases and one fatality was reported in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra has reported 23 more cases of Omicron, taking the total tally to 88 in the state.
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