India’s daily Covid cases crossed the 10,000-mark on Thursday with the Health Ministry flagging its concerns over high positivity in the metro cities of eight States, including Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Omicron tally in India hiked to 961.

The high transmissibility of the new variant was, said the Health Ministry, accompanied by low severity and there is “no cause for panic”. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had asked the eight States on alert to ramp up testing and surveillance to curtail the spread.

‘No need to panic’

The Centre, however, was cautious in characterising the exponential rise in cases as “third wave”. VK Paul, Niti Aayog, Member-Health, said while the surge is steep, there was no need to panic. “Clearly, there is an uptick today in the Covid cases. Delhi has multiplied the cases in the last few days. Similarly Mumbai in Maharashtra… The cases are now increasing. So far the deaths are stable as of now. As the scenario emerges, we believe we could be witnessing the global rise in cases pushed by the Omicron variant,” Paul said.

“This variant is highly transmissible. The severity is hopefully mild but cannot be taken for granted. These are important facts for us to see. There is no need to panic. As a nation, we are prepared and we have experience and the massive shield of a very high vaccination coverage,” he added.

Delhi witnessed more than 1,000 Covid cases at 1,313 on Thursday and Omicron infections at 288, highest in the country so far. Earlier in the day, Health Minister Satyendar Jain stated that the Omicron variant is being found in patients with no travel history indicating a gradual spread in the community. According to him, Omicron has been detected in 46 per cent of the 115 samples sequenced so far.

Cause of concern

In Maharashtra, the Covid-19 Task Force chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held an urgent meeting. Mumbai reported 3,671 Covid cases in 24 hours while the number of overall patients reported in Maharashtra was 5,368 on Thursday. “Yesterday, there were about 2,200 patients in Mumbai; today there are about 4,000 patients. This means that the number is getting doubled in two days. In Mumbai, today’s positivity is 8.48. Thane’s positivity rate for today is 5.25, Raigad and Palghar have a positivity of 4 and Pune has 4.14 positivity. This means out of 100 tests, these are the numbers of patients whose reports are positive. Definitely doubling rate is a cause for concern,” said Health Minister Rajesh Tope, speaking to reporters in Mumbai after the Task Force meeting.

“Against this backdrop, the Task Force and other members present for the meeting had discussions about restrictions. The final call will be taken by CM today or tomorrow,” Tope added.

(With inputs from Mumbai bureau)

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