Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Friday said that the world in witnessing the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and Indian states have been advised to impose restrictions like night curfew and regulate large gatherings ahead of the festive season. 

“India has to be on guard and cannot afford to slacken,” Bhushan said in the weekly press briefing. 

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The Union Health Secretary also provided an update on the omicron cases in India. He said that the country has so far reported 358 cases of the new COVID-19 variant in 17 states and UTs while 114 people have recovered. 

“The world is witnessing the fourth surge and the overall positivity is 6.1%. Therefore, we have to be on guard and can’t afford to slacken,” Bhushan said. 

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He added that as compared to Europe, North America and Africa, Asia is witnessing a decline in the number of fresh cases. 

“The top five states with the highest number of active cases, at the moment, are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka,” Rajesh Bhushan said. 

He further said that 89% of the adult population in India has received the first dose and 61% of the eligible population has received the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines.

“The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare preemptively advised States on 21st December to impose restrictions like night curfew, regulating large gatherings, increase bed capacity and other logistics and strict enforcement of COVID appropriate behaviour,” said Union Health Secretary.

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He confirmed that currently there are 18,10,083 isolation beds, 4,94,314 O2 supported beds, 1,39,300 ICU beds, 24,057 paediatric ICU beds and 64,796 paediatric non-ICU beds are available in India. 

 “There was a 10-fold increase in oxygen demand from the first wave to the second wave. Thus, 18,800 metric tonnes of medical oxygen per day has been arranged for. The cause for concern is 11 states where vaccination coverage is less than the national average.”

“World Health Organization (WHO) on December 7 said that Omicron has a significant growth advantage over Delta which means, it has greater transmissibility. Omicron cases double within 1.5-3 days, so we have to remain vigilant with Covid-appropriate behaviour,” he added.