AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria on Thursday cautioned against panic and urged citizens of the country to not hoard essential medical supplies such as oxygen cylinders and medicine, while asserting that the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus is a “mild infection”.
“Omicron is a mild infection. Oxygen requirement may not be that much. But I would request everyone to refrain from hoarding oxygen cylinders, medicines, etc. We as a nation are better prepared to manage any surge in the cases,” he said.
In addition, Dr Guleria said that the healthcare department is prepared “from the point of view of individual immunity.” “A large number of us have either got immunity because of vaccination or due to natural infection. Don’t panic, stay alert,” he said.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Thursday said that despite the Omicron variant infecting both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, it appears that the jabs are proving to be protective.
“Omicron infection numbers are high and occurring in both vaccinated and unvaccinated. But it appears that vaccines proving to be protective. The need for critical care doesn’t seem to be going up. It’s a good sign. Multiple factors account for vaccine effectiveness. One is the vaccine itself, second is biological factors like age – the older you are, the more vulnerable you are to the disease and third factor is waning of immunity,” the top scientist said.
India saw the highest single day rise of 180 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, taking the total tally of such infections in the country to 961, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The 961 cases have been detected across 22 states and UTs so far, and 320 people have recovered or migrated.
Delhi recorded the maximum number of 263 cases followed by Maharashtra at 252, Gujarat 97, Rajasthan 69, Kerala 65 and Telangana 62. The daily rise in COVID-19 cases crossed 13,000 mark after around 49 days taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,48,22,040, while the active cases increased to 82,402, according to the data updated at 8 am. The death toll has climbed to 4,80,860 with 268 fresh fatalities, the data stated.
A total of 13,091 new coronavirus infections were reported in a span of 24 hours on November 11. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 63 days now. The active cases comrpise 0.24 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.38 per cent, the ministry said.
An increase of 5,400 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
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