Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Wednesday hold a Council of Ministers meeting amid rising cases of the omicron in the country. The meeting is scheduled to be held at 4pm.

Hindustan Times reported that the meeting is expected to be attended by all ministers and among the things that are expected to be discussed include next year’s assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

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The Prime Minister had taken stock of the pandemic situation in a high-level meeting last Thursday where he asked officials to maintain a high level of vigil and alertness amid the omicron spread.

In a communication to the states and UTs earlier, the Centre had said the omicron variant is at least thrice more transmissible than its 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.

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Till date, India has identified as many as 653 cases of the omicron variant across 21 states and union territories (UTs), out of which 186 people have recovered or migrated, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

According to the health ministry, Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 167 such cases followed by Delhi at 165, Kerala 57, Telangana 55, Gujarat 49 and Rajasthan 46.

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Last week, India allowed booster shots and included teenagers aged 15 to 18 in the ongoing vaccination drive. Two more vaccines as well as Merck & Co.’s antiviral pill molnupiravir were approved by the local drug regulator on Tuesday.