Desk,24-Dec; As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is fuelling infections around the world, India’s tally of the new, highly infectious strain has crossed the 350-mark.As of Thursday night, the country reported as many as 354 cases of the Omicron variant. However, most of the patients either had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.Going by this statistic, India reported more than 100 cases of the Omicron variant in a span of 24 hours, as the Union ministry of health and family welfare said in its last update a day prior that the nationwide tally was 238.Driving the Omicron surge in India are Delhi and Maharashtra as both these regions collectively lead the tally with regards to the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is said to also be capable of undergoing frequent and an unusually large number of mutations.While Delhi did not register any fresh cases of the new variant on Thursday, Maharashtra reported 23 new infections, of which five were in Mumbai. This pushed Maharashtra’s Omicron tally to 88.Delhi has so far reported at least 64 infections of the new ‘variant of concern’; most of them, however, have not shown any symptoms and have been discharged after testing negative for the virus.Throughout Thursday, several other states continued to record Omicron infections. Two cases were reported in Odisha, seven reported in Gujarat, 12 in Karnataka, 33 in Tamil Nadu, and more.In the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting over the gradual rise in Omicron variant cases. The Prime Minister directed officials to send special teams to states with low rates of vaccination, a growing number of cases, and inadequate health infrastructure to review and improve preparations for any resurgence in Covid-19 outbreaks.
