Omicron: GOI Extends Containment Measures Till December 31 Amid Omicron Breakout

NEW DELHI: On Tuesday 30 November, the centre extended the nationwide COVID-19 containment measures till 31 December in light of the emergence of a new covid variant called Omicron.

As the new variant is detected in other countries, the centre urged the states of the country to be aware and vigilant.

In a discussion, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla also urged the states across the country and the Union territories to strictly follow the advisory released on 25 November by the Union Health Minister. He recommended the states and UTs for thorough screening along with testing conducted for all international arrivals in the country.

Bhalla informed that according to the guidelines by the health ministry, the connections of the international travellers must be deeply checked and tracked and on finding any positive case, they must be sent to the Genome Sequencing Laboratories promptly as per the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) Guidance Document.

The surveillance officers appointed in different states must coordinate with their tagged genome sequencing laboratories for the analysis of genomic. Bhalla added that in case of the occurrence of the variant of concern the states and union territories must immediately undertake important public health measures.

Accordingly, the home secretary administered that the existing "Prompt and Effective Containment Measures for COVID-19" needs to be continued till the end of the year i.e. December 31.

On Tuesday 30 November, Union Home Ministry Rajesh Bhushan organized a review meeting along with Union territories and states and guided them to increase the progress in testing to manage positive cases properly and to identify cases earlier to prevent its spread.

While mentioning primarily that the new variant Omicron doesn't get away from the RAT and RT-PCR tests, Bhushan urged the states and UTs to make sure about proper infrastructure and direct home isolation as preventive measures.

India has registered a total of 6,990 new covid cases which counts to be the lowest in 551 days taking the total count to 3,45,87,822. According to the data recently updated on Tuesday 30 November by the Union Home Ministry, active covid cases have been decreased to 1,00,543 which appears to be the lowest in 154 days. The number of deaths according to the updated data has climbed to 4.68,980 with 190 new deaths reported.

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