NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday rang fresh alarm bells saying that evidence so far suggests that the omicron variant is at least thrice more infectious than delta, pushing states to reactivate Covid19 war rooms to keep a close watch on emerging data on the population affected by the infectious disease
This, the government said, was in view of the initial signs of a surge in cases of Covid19 in India as well as increased detection of the omicron variant in various parts of the country.
On Tuesday, Odisha, too, joined the list of states with confirmed omicron cases while its total confirmed cases in India jumped to 202.
In letters written to all chief secretaries, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that at the district level, there should be a constant review of emerging data regarding the population affected by Covid19, geographical spread, hospital infrastructure and its utilization, manpower and notification of containment zones.
The main elements of the framework to be used by states to facilitate decision making at the district level, said the Centre, should be a test positivity rate of 10 % or more in the last one week or bed occupancy of 40 % or more on oxygen supported or ICU beds.
“Based on current scientific evidence, the VOC (a variant of concern) omicron is at least 3 times more transmissible than the delta VOC,” said the advisory adding that as delta is still present in different parts of the country, even greater foresight, data analysis, dynamic decision making and strict and prompt containment action is required at the local and district level.
It added that the decision making at the local level must be very prompt and focussed.
The government has also said that based on the local situation and population characteristics such as density and given the high transmissibility of omicron, states can take containment measures and restrictions even before the specified thresholds are reached.
The latest communique also said that door to door-case search, testing of all cases of severe acute respiratory illness or influenza-like illnesses and ensuring the right proportion of RTPCR tests in total tests conducted daily should be a must.
It has also been said that ensuring stringent enforcement of home isolation, with customized kits will be a must in order to contain the disease outbreak locally.
On the Covid vaccination front, the ministry has asked states to ensure 100 % coverage of those left out from the first doses while also accelerating second dose coverage, especially in the districts where the first and second dose coverage is less than the national average.
The advisory comes even as the statistics released by the Union health ministry on Tuesday showed that the active cases in India, at 79,097, is the lowest in the last 574 days.