Omicron Cases Spike In India: On December 30, yesterday, India saw a spike of the new variant of coronavirus, Omicron cases. The country recorded 309 cases of the Omicron. India recorded 16,764 fresh cases of coronavirus and now the caseload stands at 91,361. Ahead of news years eve, the state government have imposed curbs to avoid the spread of coronavirus and the new variant Omicron.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had put out the updates on the number of cases today at 8 AM. As per the data mentioned, 374 out of 1,270 patients infected with Omicron have migrated. The breakdown of the national data according to the state was also made available.
According to the bulletin, Maharashtra reported the highest with 450 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi at 320, Kerala at 109 and Gujarat at 97. After 64 days, the daily number of coronavirus cases has crossed 16,000 and the country's tally is 3,48,38,804. The daily positivity rate is at 1.34 percent and remains below two percent for 88 days now.
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First Omicron Death
A 52-year-old man in Pune died due to a heart attack. He was also positive for the Omicron variant. The man had a history of international travel to Nigeria and was diabetic for 13 years, which can be counted as co-morbidity. He died at Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's Yashwantrao Chavan Hospital on Tuesday. Although the health authorities have denied death due to Omicron, health experts told TOI that since he was diagnosed with Omicron, the death is going to be classified as COVID-19 fatality.
Many states have declared night curfews and added curbs as people head to the new year celebrations. The first priority remains to curb the spread of coronavirus and the new variant Omicron. Keeping this in mind, the Maharashtra government too announced added restrictions. "In case of marriages or any other social, political, religious event, the maximum number of attendees shall be restricted to 50 persons. The maximum number of attendees is restricted to 20 in funerals," the order read. Read more about it here.