Desk,18-Dec;With the number of Omicron cases rapidly rising in the country, the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) issued a call to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings, and observe low-intensity festivities. “Local restrictive measures” are to be implemented in 24 districts from seven states, including nine in Kerala and eight in Manipur, with a weekly test positivity rate above 5 per cent.The Centre also warned it is likely that the spread of the new variant will outpace the Delta variant where there is community transmission. This comes as India’s Omicron tally went past 100 cases on Friday, after recording the highest single day rise of 24 fresh cases and affecting 11 states and UTs across the country.In another development, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an emergency use listing for Covovax, the anti-Covid vaccine being produced by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) under license from Novavax. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said, “This is yet another milestone in our fight against Covid-19, Covovax is now WHO approved for emergency use, showing excellent safety and efficacy.”On the case front, India logged 7,447 new infections and 391 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total cases stand at 3,47,26,049. A decline of 830 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.Two travellers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is not listed as a high-risk country by India, were Friday found to be infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19, taking the total number of such cases in Kerala to seven.State Health Minister Veena George Friday said the couple, in their sixties and originally from Kerala, reached the state on December 8 and have been under self-observation since then as their country-of-origin was not listed under the high-risk category. “The couple tested positive for Covid-19 on December 11 and their samples were sent for genome sequencing. Passengers who came in close contact with the couple would be observed,” the minister said.(CNS)
