India has recorded its first Omicron death. A 74-year-old man who was from Udaipur, died last week has been confirmed as the first death due to Omicron. He was admitted to Maharana Bhupal government hospital in Udaipur had initially tested negative for Covid twice, he was fully vaccinated and had a host of comorbidities. Although this is considered to be an Omicron-related death, he was elderly with comorbid conditions. Lal Agarwal, the Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry has said that the guidelines state that if a Covid patient dies, it will be considered as a Coronavirus fatality, and even if it is detected late, the person found to be Omicron positive will be Omicron positive similarly.
The nation has reported a steep spike of over 56 percent with 90,928 cases recorded in the last 24 hours. India has also reported 325 deaths. The Omicron cases are 2630 as of now. The Union government has termed the rise in the COVID cases in the nation as “exponential”.
The hospitals are getting busier and the number of cases in cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi has seen a spike in the past few days. But it is seen that the cases are not that severe and are mostly mild. Most patients do not need ventilator or oxygen support. Chennai has recorded three times more cases than the last month. The number of cases in January has been 1754 compared to 507 cases in December. The same has been the case with Mumbai and Delhi as well.
The new variant has been the reason for the increasing number of cases in India with the tally reaching almost 1 lakh. Dr. Balram Bhargava, the Director-General of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) has reported that the Omicron is now the dominantly circulating strain in India. The Omicron variant has now officially reached 26 states of the country.
Maharashtra is still the biggest contributor state with 797 Omicron cases, Delhi is the second-largest contributor with 465 cases. The Health Minister of Delhi has already reported that the national capital has been hit with the third wave of the pandemic.
Rajasthan has recorded 236 cases, Kerala reported 234 cases so far. According to the Health Ministry of India, the acceleration of the cases is steeper than ever. India stands twelfth in the number of Omicron cases following the UK, Denmark, the US, Germany, Canada, Norway, Austria, France, Estonia, and Israel, as reported by the Central government.
The situation is getting worse day by day and has impacted the daily life of the country, especially the political campaigns in the poll-bound states. States have imposed various restrictions to stop the spread of the deadly virus because the coming five to six weeks will be very crucial for India.
