As Omicron cases surge, Centre warns of 4th wave across the world

In the light of the rise in Omicron cases, the newest version of SARS-CoV-2, the Union health ministry issued a new warning against the Covid-19 pandemic on Friday. According to health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, during the ministry’s weekly press briefing on Friday, the world recorded over 9 lakh Covid-19 cases on December 23, indicating a new wave of the epidemic.

Here are 10 points the health ministry said:

1. The world is witnessing the 4th surge of the pandemic. On December 23, over 9 lakh Covid cases have been recorded all over the world.

2. Compared with Europe, North America and Africa, Asia is witnessing a decline in the number of fresh cases, but we have to be on guard, Rajesh Bhushan said.

3. India has been recording around 7,000 Covid cases every day. Since the past 4 weeks, India’s daily case tally fell below 10,000

4. India has seen two surges of the pandemic so far: one in September 2020 and the second in May 2021.

5. At present, India’s cases are on the decline: Global case positivity rate is more than 6% while India’s case positivity rate is 5.3%, though there are regional variations.

6. Cause of concern is the case positivity rate in Kerala and Mizoram.

7. Around 20 districts in the country are reporting a weekly positivity between 5 and 10%

8. 108 countries have reported over 1 lakh Omicron cases and there have been 26 deaths. In India, there are 358 Omicron cases in 17 states and UTs. 114 recovery has been reported.

9. Out of 183 cases analysed in India, 121 had foreign travel history, 44 had no foreign travel history but they came in contact with people with foreign travel history. Details of 18 are unknown. Out of these 183 cases, 87 were fully vaccinated, including 3 who received three doses of vaccine. 7 were unvaccinated and 2 were partially vaccinated, the Centre said.

10. Delta continues to be the dominant strain in India, including the recently identified clusters, ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava said.