Fight against Covid is not over yet, says PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday directed all agencies of the Central government to work closely with the states and support their efforts at public health measures towards containment under the “Whole of Government” approach to prevent Omicron’s spread in the country.

At a high-level meeting with experts and senior officials to review the Covid-19 situation, he stressed how important it was for states to ensure that hospitals have their oxygen supply equipment installed and fully functional. He also called for effective use of IT tools for telemedicine and teleconsultation.

The PM said that the strategy of the Centre was for a proactive, focused, collaborative and cooperative fight against the pandemic that must guide “all our future actions”.  “In view of the new variant, we should be ‘satark’ (alert) and ‘saavdhan’ (take precautions),” he added.

Mr Modi emphasised that the fight against the pandemic was not over and there was a need for continued adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour. He directed the officials to ensure that health systems in the states, beginning from the district level, were strengthened to meet any challenge posed by the Omicron variant.

Mr Modi directed the officials to work with the state authorities on a regular basis and review the preparedness of various components of the health infrastructure, including training and capacity building of human resources, timely availability of ambulances, the readiness of states to operationalise Covid-19 facilities for institutional quarantining and effective and supervised monitoring of those in home isolation.

Hours before the PM’s meeting, the health ministry directed all states going in for elections in the near future to “exponentially ramp up vaccinations” -- especially in “low coverage districts” to protect the vulnerable population.

At another review meeting with the states/UTs, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan raised a red flag that pockets with low vaccination coverage may be more vulnerable to the Omicron variant -- and district administrations must pay special attention to ramp up vaccinations in these pockets.  

Mr Bhushan advised states/UTs to ensure 100 per cent Covid-19 vaccine coverage of the left-out first and second dose eligible beneficiaries in an accelerated manner, with special focus on districts where the coverage is less than the national average.

The latest health ministry figures suggest that over 140 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered to the country’s adult population. While over 60 per cent of the adult population has got both doses, about 90 per cent has been administered only one shot.

On the spread of Omicron, the health ministry figures in the morning showed a total of 236 people have been infected with the new variant across 16 states and UTs. Some TV news channels, however, claimed that over 300 Omicron cases have been detected across the country.

The health ministry data updated at 8 am also showed India had 7,495 new Covid-19 infections, taking the total tally of cases to 3,47,65,976, while active cases increased to 78,291. The data showed that the death toll due to the virus has risen to 4,78,759, with 434 fresh fatalities.

With 65 Omicron cases, Maharashtra has so far reported the highest cases of the new strain, followed by Delhi with 64 cases, Telangana with 24, Rajasthan (21), Karnataka (19), Kerala (15) and Gujarat (14).

Mumbai also reported 602 fresh Covid-19 cases and one death over the last 24 hours -- showing an upward trajectory that has concerned many. The figure in Mumbai is the highest single-day spike in 77 days -- on October 6, the city reported 629 cases.

In Delhi, a day after banning gatherings for Christmas and New Year celebrations, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Thursday that the city’s preparations for the highly infectious variant will have keen focus on the home isolation of patients. He said arrangements were made to support and counsel one lakh patients a day in home isolation.

Several other states announced strict measures to prevent the spread of Omicron. In Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced a night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am as a precautionary step to stop the spread of Omicron and a Covid-19 third wave.

Haryana’s health minister said that from January 1, 2022, people who had not got the second dose of the vaccine will not be permitted to enter congested areas like restaurants, malls, banks and offices. The Punjab government said its employees won’t get their salary if they don’t submit their vaccination certificates.  

The Central government also reiterated that districts should impose local containment measures where the test positivity increases beyond 10 per cent or occupancy of oxygenated beds increases beyond 40 per cent.

At the health ministry meeting, attended among others by Dr Randeep Guleria, director of New Delhi’s AIIMS, experts highlighted to the states that the Omicron variant closely mimics the common cold with a higher rate of transmissibility and doubling time, and directed them to enforce a minimum 14 days of restrictions in clusters with higher case positivity rates.

The health secretary asked the states to keep a close watch on Omicron cases in new emerging clusters and initiate containment in these areas, including imposition of night curfews and ensuring strict regulation of large gatherings, especially ahead of the forthcoming festivities.

Mr Bhushan also said that many have decommissioned Covid facilities set up in the Delta surge -- and these states have to “keep an action plan ready for making these operational along with adequate availability of doctors and ambulances on call in case there is a rise in Covid cases”.