The Union Health Ministry on Friday updating on the COVID-19 situation said that there are a total of 25 Omicron cases in the country so far.
At a regular press briefing, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, said that all detected Omicron cases have mild symptoms and less than 0.04% of total variants have been detected.
The health ministry's briefing comes on a day after three more Omicron cases were detected in the country - two in Gujarat and one in Mumbai.
Lav Agarwal further highlighted World Health Organisation (WHO)'s advice that public health measures should be abided by on a continual, besides vaccination.
The joint secretary said that laxity in public health measures is leading to a surge in cases in Europe.
Revealing statistics, Mr Agarwal said that two countries had reported Omicron cases till 24th November and now 59 countries have reported cases of Omicron.
"These 59 countries have reported 2,936 Omicron cases, besides this 78,054 probable cases detected- their genome sequencing is underway," he added.
On the other hand, Dr Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR said that regular meetings are being organised to keep a watch on global scenario and Covid scene in India with a focus on Omicron.
"District level restrictions to be implemented where positivity over 5%," Dr Bhargava added.
Several cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected in the country with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Delhi reporting new cases.
A new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.
On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'
Earlier in the day, the health ministry informed that more than 140 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to States and Union Territories. More than 140 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to States and Union Territories.
