Centre confirms first Omicron death in country in Rajasthan

The Health Ministry has declared on Wednesday that the Omicron variant is the predominant strain that is leading to an upsurge of cases in India and confirms the first omicron death in the country.

New Delhi/Udaipur: The Union Health Ministry confirms the first death from Omicron in Udaipur as a 73-year-old man died on December 31.

Udaipur CMHO Dr Dinesh Kharadi told that the Medical Department has sent the report to Jaipur. According to his medical history, the elderly was diagnosed negative with Corona, twice. The 75-year-old was a resident of the Savina area of ​​Udaipur city and was admitted to the hospital for 15 days.

The deceased was diagnosed to be Omicron positive on 25 December. The health department had told that the post covid problems were the cause of the death.

According to the department, the elderly had pneumonia, hypertension, and diabetes but had no travel history. Not only this, he was diagnosed negative on 21 December and on 22 December.

Taking a strong note of the rapid surge of Covid19 cases due to Omicron, the Centre on Wednesday asked States and Union Territory (UTs) to be prepared with hospital beds. The center has also suggested linking hotels for emergency use in case of the district-specific rise of cases.

The health ministry has admitted that there is a 5.03 percent rise in daily positivity cases from 0.79 percent reported on December 29.

"The sharp rise in daily cases and positivity can be credited due to Omicron," said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry while addressing a press conference in New Delhi.

A total of 28 districts are reporting over 10 percent weekly Covid positivity, while 43 districts are reporting weekly positivity between 5-10 percent, the officials said.

The Centre added that 1.06 crore or 14.3 percent of India's adolescents aged 15-18 years have been administered the first dose of the Covid vaccine.

An estimated 7,40,57,000 adolescents in the age group 15-18 years are there in the country and are eligible for vaccination, it said.

It added that relatively less hospitalization has been observed in countries reporting the surge in Omicron cases.

The daily cases have also witnessed a huge spike of 58,097 cases from 9,195 reported on December 29.

"India has reported more than 6.3 times increase in cases in last 8 days. A sharp increase in case of positivity from 0.97 percent on December 29 to 5.03 percent has been reported on January 5," said Agarwal.

He said that eight States including Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Gujarat have been witnessing a huge increase in weekly positivity as well as weekly cases.

Agarwal said that 44 districts have been witnessing more than 2.5 percent positivity week ending December 29 which went up to 156 districts week ending January 5.

Health Ministry statistics said that 28 districts from the 10 States in India are reporting more than 10 percent weekly positivity and 43 districts have been witnessing weekly positivity between 5 to 10 percent.

Agarwal said that a total of 2135 Omicron cases has been detected from 24 States and UTs across India out of which 828 have been recovered and 1306 are still active.

Maharashtra is leading the list of States with maximum Omicron cases of 653, followed by 464 in Delhi, 185 in Kerala, 174 in Rajasthan, 154 in Gujarat, and 121 in Tamil Nadu.

Expressing concern over spoke in cases, Dr. Balram Bhargava, director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that Omicron has become the dominant variant in cities.

He said that droplets and aerosol are the two passages through which Omicron is spreading.

"The steep rise in the infection and cases are of different numbers in different parts of India. The waves are also of different stages," said Dr. Bhargava when asked whether India has started witnessing the third wave of the pandemic or not.

Echoing the same view, Dr. VK Paul, chairman of India's Covid19 task force termed the current wave as an expanding pandemic.

"There is a steep increase in acceleration of cases. We have to look into the pattern of the virus for determining the number of cases in the coming days," said Dr Paul.

When asked whether Omicron can be a substitute for vaccines, Dr. Paul clarified that infection can't be a substitute for vaccines.

"Let me clarify that infection can't be a substitute for the vaccine," said Dr. Paul.