New surge in Omicron cases recorded in Delhi, Germany and US still coping with new Covid-19 variants

Situation on the ground 

For the last few weeks Delhi recorded a new surge in Omicron cases. National government has not announced any precautionary measures yet but medical center’s in the capital are keeping track of the number of growing cases everyday. 

On Friday Delhi logged 1042 new COVID cases with a positivity rate of 4.64%. The R factor of 1 for COVID-19 cases recorded in India previously has been doubled to 2. Meaning one infected person in Delhi, is now infecting two more healthy persons. 

Delhi government has made the wearing of masks optional even amidst the surge in Omicron cases, daily. 

Unprecedented surge  

According to the data released on the Indian health ministry website on Friday India recorded 2,451 fresh Omicron cases, the highest recorded number since March 18. 

With 54 new deaths recorded from all over the country India’s total death count is currently at 522,116. With the latest surge in Omicron cases, the country’s overall count has risen to 43,052,425.  

Official response 

The Serum Institute of India’s chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla said in a statement on Friday that due to the slowing down in vaccination campaigns, The serum institute of India currently houses about 200 million unused doses at this moment. 

He has also warned that If government ignores the new surge in Omicron cases and focusses I  business as usual and said “ we can’t afford to put a price tag on the life of a citizen “.  

Pointing out the Delhi governments failure to curb the growing surge in Omicron cases daily. Despite having 200 million doses in the inventory, vaccine intake has been coming down steadily. 

He called for the vaccination of women and children as precautionary measures before the rate of infection surges again. 

The world at large  

Officials in Shanghai intensified the testing of COVID-19 cases on Friday, with official records showing that the surge of COVID- 19 is coming under control. 

Germany, Italy and France are coping with new COVID-19 cases on a daily basis, with Germany recording nearly 2 lakh new cases in a day. 

On Tuesday recorded COVID cases in Germany went up by an astounding 1.98 lakhs to reach 23,658,211 cases. Total of 348 new deaths were reported by Reuters. 

France recorded 25,465 new cases on Tuesday. With the surge in number of covid-19 cases needing critical care everyday, France is having a hard time to control the situation. 

Conditions in India and US is alarming, as new covid-19 variants are causing surge in Omicron cases. 

US continues to be the world’s worst hit country’s with the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths of 80,732,919 and 989,328 respectively, according to the US department of health and human services while India accounts for the second highest count in number of confirmed cases at 43,052,425. 

Edited By: Kiran Maharana

Published By: Akshaj Joshi