India’s federal Health Ministry has asked regional governments to impose nightly curfews and set up war rooms to tackle the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that has sparked fears of an impending third wave of the virus.
The Health Ministry said 223 cases of the highly contagious variant had been detected in the country as of Wednesday. Omicron was first detected in the country on December 2.
In its latest advisory to states, the federal ministry warned that the variant is “three times as transmissible” as the previously dominant Delta strain. It asked states to impose nightly curfews, regulate gatherings and reduce attendance permitted at weddings, funerals and workplaces.
It also asked regional governments to conduct door-to-door testing and contact tracing of all Covid-positive persons who have recently travelled internationally and activate war rooms to monitor trends and surges.
Data shared by the ministry showed the majority of the positive cases occurred in international travellers, but a significant number had contracted the infection locally.
Cases of Omicron are rising rapidly in India, sparking fears of a devastating third wave of the virus in India.
On Wednesday, the capital, Delhi, also banned all Christmas and New Year’s Eve gatherings and barred people without masks form entering markets.
The government and experts have said India could have another wave in the coming months if the spread of Omicron sis not curbed. The country reported a similar pattern of low infection rates last winter before the home-grown Delta variant ravaged the nation from March onwards.
APN
