A total of 25 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in India so far, with all patients exhibiting “mild symptoms”, the central government said on Friday. 

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, the Joint Secretary for the Union Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal said, “Overall 25 Omicron cases in the country so far. All detected cases have mild symptoms. Less than 0.04% of total variants detected.”

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He said that 93 international passengers have tested positive for COVID-19 since December 1, with 83 of them returning from countries designated as “at-risk” countries. 

The Omicron variant, which has been designated as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been detected in 59 countries so far, Agarwal said. Those countries have reported a total of 2,936 cases of the new variant, he added. 

“Surveillance, effective screening, monitoring of international travellers and health infrastructure upgradation is being done. States have been notified to increase their surveillance and actively test passengers arriving from other countries,” Agarwal added. 

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The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that while India’s healthcare infrastructure has not been overburdened by the Omicron variant so far, citizens need to maintain vigil. 

The WHO has highlighted that health safety measures, like social distancing and mask-wearing have been dropping across the world with increasing vaccination rates, Agarwal said. “Adequate precautions have to be followed, laxity in public health measures leading to a surge in cases in Europe,” he added. 

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Agarwal also said that the positivity rate last week was recorded at 0.73%, with less than 10,000 cases detected in last 14 days. Active case tally is highest in two states – Kerala and Maharashtra – with over 43% active cases in the former and over 10% in the latter. 

The weekly positivity rate in 19 districts was between five and 10 per cent and it was over 10 per cent in eight districts of three states. The government said 86.2% of the country’s adult population received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 53.5% has been administered both doses.