Nagpur: Maharashtra’s Additional Chief Secretary Health Dr Pradeep Vyas on Wednesday claimed that more cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 are likely to increase in January next year.
The variant has been rapidly spreading in the state and a surge will likely be witnessed in January. In India, most of the cases of the newly-discovered variant have been reported from Maharashtra. Amid the scare of the Omicron variant, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed the agencies to make every effort to give two doses of vaccine to everyone in the state. Besides this, Thackeray has also planned to ramp up Covid-19 testing in the state, especially travelers who are entering the state from outside the country.
Vyas in the cabinet meeting said, “These patients can be found not only in big cities but also in small towns. Next month, in January, a large number of people in the state will be infected with omicron.” On Wednesday, four cases were reported in the state, two cases in Osmanabad and one each in Mumbai and Buldhana.
Dr Uday Bodhankar told The Free Media that the transmissibility of the Omicron variant is way more than that of the Delta variant. “Within 25 days the newly-discovered variant has reached more than 6-0 countries so we can imagine how highly transmissible the variant is.”
He added that even the kids are getting infected so it is now important to roll out the vaccination for children. Bodhankar also added, “Few people are still hesitant in taking the vaccine for Covid-19. If this continues, India can never achieve herd immunity and these new variants will always stand as threats ahead of us.”
