Omicron spread: Seven-day quarantine must for flyers from abroad

No registration needed for booster vaccination

No new registration would be required for those eligible for the precautionary or the third dose of Covid vaccine, the Union health ministry said on Friday. Those who have taken two doses of the Covid vaccine can directly take an appointment or walk-in to any Covid-19 vaccination centre to get their jab, the government said.

The fresh guidelines came as as the daily Covid-19 cases in India soared past the 100,000 mark on Friday, the highest in seven months. India also asked all international passengers to undergo a seven-day home-quarantine, and test on the eighth day.

The health ministry has asked the states to commission oxygen plants on a war footing and make sure all oxygen equipment in health facilities were tested and functional to meet any emergent situation. 

As of Friday morning, India reported 117,100 new Covid-19 cases. 

The number of cases in Mumbai, the worst-affected city in the country, however, stabilised, with the financial capital reporting around 20,000 new cases each for the past two days.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level meeting, which underlined the challenge posed by the surging Covid cases across the country due to the Omicron variant. Omicron cases in India crossed 3,000 on Friday. India’s daily positivity rate is almost at 8 per cent, and weekly positivity at 4.5 per cent.  

The health ministry also asked the states to conduct mock drills to ensure that oxygen flow at the patient bedside adheres to adequate purity and recommended outlet pressure with no leakages. States should also monitor the installation of PSA (pressure swing absorption) plants in private hospitals and medical college hospitals, it said.  

Urging the states to address the large gaps that continue to exist between delivered and installed ventilators, Bhushan said, “States need to ensure that the delivered ventilators are quickly installed and commissioned at the designated field health facilities…Provide consignee details of hospitals for requirement of additional ventilators and expedite the issuing of final acceptance certificates for installed ventilators.”

On Friday, India crossed a landmark by administering 1.5 billion vaccination doses. Since the beginning of teenage vaccinations on January 3, the country has vaccinated 21.7 million children between 15-17 years of age.

The Centre has also asked the states to maintain a state of alertness to ensure adequate buffer stock of drugs.

The home ministry met officials from Delhi and its bordering districts on Thursday on the need for a unified strategy in Delhi-NCR to tackle the pandemic. Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said no stone would be left unturned to deal with the surge in cases, and immediate steps should be taken to further strengthen the monitoring and containment mechanism.

Booster vaccination

The health ministry will push the schedules for vaccination on January 8 and the online appointment facility will also start then. The precautionary dose will be rolled out from January 10.

Amid rising concerns over Omicron variant and waning immunity, the government had announced a precautionary third dose. It said that the third dose to be made available only to healthcare, frontline workers and individuals above 60 years of age with comorbidities will be of the same vaccine as the primary two doses.

Nearly 30 millon health care and frontline workers will be eligible for a precaution shot. As for the elderly, India has 138 million people above 60-years of age. They are eligible for third precaution doses once they complete nine months post their second vaccine shots. Vaccinations for the elderly began in March 2021.

Guidelines for international passengers

In a major move, India on Friday said all passengers arriving in the country would have to undergo seven-day home quarantine and take an RT-PCR test on the eighth day. The test result must be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal and will be monitored by state health departments, according to the new guidelines issued by the Union health ministry.

On November 30, the government had introduced guidelines for international passengers in view of the spread of the Omicron variant. Countries have been classified on the basis of risk of transmission of Covid-19.

According to the earlier guidelines, only passengers arriving from ‘countries at risk’ had to quarantine at home for seven days. These passengers also had to take a Covid-19 test on arrival. Now, all incoming passengers will have to undergo seven-day home quarantine.

The list of countries included in the “in at risk” list too has been expanded to include six African countries and Kazakhstan.

Metros continue to report spike in daily cases

Mumbai reported fresh daily cases of 20,971, with 1,395 people requiring hospitalisations on Friday. While the daily case count remained relatively stable, the requirement for hospital beds was higher than Thursday. So far, more than 18 per cent of Mumbai’s 35,645 Covid beds are occupied.

On a positive note, the city also saw a significant reduction in active containment zones – from 32 on Thursday to only 6 by Friday evening. The number of sealed buildings also came down from 502 to 123 in a single day, indicating recoveries of Covid patients.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the city was expected to add 17,000 fresh cases to its tally with the positivity rate of around 17 per cent on Friday.

He said Delhi was the first to witness a surge in infections because most international flights came to the capital. "Delhi has around 31,498 active cases and only 1,091 hospital beds are occupied. When we had an equal number of cases last time, around 7,000 beds were occupied," Jain said.

States like Tamil Nadu saw a marginal rise in need for hospitalisations. From 70,000 vacant Covid beds across the state on January 1, the southern state now has 69,000 beds available. This is at a time when its active Covid cases saw a 93 per cent jump – from 8,340 cases on January 1 to 22,928 on Thursday, hinting at a lower demand for hospitalisation.

State Health Minister Ma Subramanian said the delta and omicron variants were spreading like Tsunami in Tamil Nadu. On Friday, the state reported 6,983 daily cases, with Chennai recording 3,759 cases.

The emergence of clusters in Tamil Nadu is a worry. A day after 149 students of Madras Institute of Technology tested positive, at least 30 workers of a popular retail chain Saravana stores were also tested positive.