New Delhi: Amid a massive surge in Covid19 cases, the Centre on Wednesday said that more than 80 percent of cases in metropolitan cities in the last one week are found to be Omicron generated.
"What we have found is that in last one week, Omicron is accountable for more than 80 percent of the Covid cases in metropolitan cities. However, cases of Delta may also be there," said Dr VK Paul, chairman of India's Covid19 task force.
Asserting that the exact data of Omicron cases may not be available with the government, Dr Paul said, "infection among vaccinated people may not be severe."
India's rapid surge is contributed to Omicron. Unvaccinated people have a high risk of severity and hospitalization. Although, people affected with Omicron are also on ventilation," said Dr Paul while addressing a press conference in New Delhi.
He also cautioned that medicine should not be overused. "Last year, we have seen that overdose of medicine contributed to Mucormycosis. We should use the rational treatment of medicine," said Dr Paul and added, "We have to make propose the use of drugs."
At present 28 States in India are affected with Omicron with a total of 4,868 cases. Of the total cases, 1,805 are recovered, 3,062 are still active and one death has also been reported.
Talking about the present Covid19 situation in India, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry said that India has been witnessing an increased rate of Covid positivity and active cases.
"A sharp increase has been witnessed in the case of positivity from 1.1 percent on December 30 to 11.05 percent on January 12," said Agarwal.
For the last one week, India has been witnessing 1,50,307 average daily cases with an increasing positivity of 9.82 percent.
The health ministry has also identified that States like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Gujarat remain emerging States of concern indicating an early surge in cases.
As many as 19 States at present have more than 10,000 active cases, 4 States have cases between 5,000-10,000 and 13 States have less than 5,000 cases.
Ironically, week ending January 4, as many as 78 districts have been witnessing positivity of more than 5 percent which went up to 300 districts week ending January 11.
"Districts in Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu are becoming a major reason of concern," said Agarwal.
Referring to India's Covid19 testing capacity at present, Dr Balram Bhargava said that more than 69.5 cumulative samples have been tested dollars from the country's 3,128 testing laboratories.
"We have, at present, a daily RT PCR testing capacity of 20 lakh," said Dr Bhargava.
Elaborating on the testing procedure for SARD-CoV-2, Dr Bhargava said that standard molecular tests cost around Rs 400-500, rapid molecular testing system costs Rs 1200-2500, rapid antigen tests costs Rs 50-100 and home antigen tests (HAT) costs between Rs 250-300.
Dr Bhargava said that 176 manufacturers are available at present who produces a total of 293 lakh test kits every day.
Referring to the Omicron testing issue, Dr Bhargava admitted two major concerns for genomic sequencing of Omicron that includes "expensive and time-consuming (minimum of 48-72 hours from sample receipt)"
He, however, said that innovative solutions of OmiSure, the Omicron detection kits of Tata MD Check will definitely help in this direction.
Interestingly, amid a surge in Covid cases due to Omicron, the Ayush ministry has also come forward with innovations to deal with such a rapid surge of the pandemic.
Pramod Kumar Pathak, special secretary of the Ayush Ministry said that Ayush medicine produces a good immune system.
"We have intervened with several medicines as prophylaxis such as Ayuraksha Kit, Guduchi Ghan Vati among others," said Pathak.
Pathak said that his ministry has also intervened with prophylaxis for Covid 19 management.
The official said that the Ayush medicines have been brought following 139 scientific studies.
Also Read: Omicron: Centre sets up help desks, control rooms for smooth flow of essential items
