Two were partially vaccinated, seven people were unvaccinated while 16 were ineligible to receive vaccine doses in the country’s national vaccination programme. The vaccination status of 73 is still unknown, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press conference.
Bhushan said 121 cases had foreign travel history, while in 44 cases the infected had come in contact with foreign travellers. Information about 18 people was still not available. ICMR director-general Dr Balram Bhargava said, “The predominant strain in India continues to be Delta, including the recently identified clusters. Therefore, we need to continue with the same strategy of following Covid-appropriate behaviour and ramping up vaccination.”
Infection due to Omicron variant “does not necessarily lead to severe symptomatic clinical disease”. In India, about a third of all the detected cases were mildly symptomatic and the rest were asymptomatic, he underlined.
“Therefore, I want to emphasise that the treatment for Omicron infected symptomatic individuals remains the same. It does not change from that for Delta, Alpha or the Beta variant,” he added.
The government on Friday cautioned people against lowering their guard, particularly during year-end festivities, even as it underlined that infection due to Omicron does not necessarily lead to severe symptomatic disease.
Of the 358 cases of Omicron variant detected so far in 17 states and Union Territories, 114 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union health m inistry data.
India has 244 active cases of the omicron variant. Maharashtra has recorded the maximum of 88 cases, followed by Delhi at 67, Telangana at 38, Tamil Nadu at 34, Karnataka at 31 and Gujarat at 30. Bhushan said 26 confirmed deaths have been detected across 108 countries.
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