The number of cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in India rose to 21 over the weekend and citizens should speed up their vaccination, officials announced today.
The western state of Rajasthan reported the highest number of Omicron cases with nine, followed by Maharashtra with eight, Karnataka with two and Gujarat with one and the capital New Delhi with eight.
“The people of Delhi must be fully vaccinated, put on a mask and maintain social distance,” Health Minister Satyedar Jain said on Twitter.
He said the first patient with Omicron in the city is being treated in a public hospital.
About 94% of the city’s adults have been vaccinated with at least the first dose, he added.
The country has fully vaccinated 51% of its 944 million adults and at least 85% with a single dose.
Tens of millions of people, however, have been delayed in taking the second dose despite abundant supplies of the vaccine, government figures show.
India reported the first two cases of Omicron in the southern state of Karnataka on Thursday. One person had not recently traveled.
Most other cases are reported in people who have recently come from abroad, but doctors say the variant virus is already spreading to the local population.
“Omicron is here, the spread in the community is ongoing. Put on a mask. Get fully vaccinated,” surgeon Arvinder Sikh Soin, who treats patients with COVID-19, wrote on Twitter.
India reported 8,895 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 34.64 million.
The number of deaths from complications of COVID-19 increased by 211 reaching 473,537.
Following the record increase in cases and deaths in April and May due to the Delta variant, the new daily cases in India have been around 10,000 in recent weeks.
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