As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare India recorded 7,350 new cases and 202 deaths in the last 24 hours. As per an ANI report on December 10, 2021, the Health Ministry informed that 25 Omicron cases had been reported in India. Furthermore, on Sunday, Andhra Pradesh detected its first case of Omicron variant.

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Omicron, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, has caught the attention of the government as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed it as a variant of concern. According to Manindra Agarwal, IIT scientist involved in the mathematical projection of trajectory of COVID-19, the third wave of coronavirus could hit the peak by February with cases likely to be reaching up to 1-1.5 lakh a day due to Omicron. However, it will be milder than the second wave, he told to PTI.

“With the new variant, our current forecast is that the country could see the third wave by February but it will be milder than the second wave. So far, we have seen that the severity of Omicron is not like the one seen in the Delta variant,” PTI said in a report quoting Agarwal.

Here are the updates from India:

12.55 PM: Three persons, who arrived from London to the KempeGowda International Airport (KIAL) in Bengaluru, have tested positive for Covid-19 in RT-PCR tests, health department sources said on Monday, as per an IANS report. 
As per the protocol 30-year-old woman and 6-year-old two boys have been taken to designated hospital and kept under isolation. Since they have arrived from a high risk zone, the samples have been sent for genomic sequencing.
So far, three patients have tested positive for Omicron variant in the state. Two have travel history and one did not have any travel history. The health department initiated a series of measures to contain the infection from the new variant.
However, the state health department officials have heaved a sigh of relief as all primary and secondary contacts of the third person who tested positive for Omicron variant have tested negative for Covid-19. The authorities are waiting for their second test results.
The third Omicron positive patient had come with a negative RT-PCR report from South Africa on December 1. He also tested negative in Covid-19 test at the KempeGowda International Airport (KIAL) in Bengaluru.
However, after reaching home he developed Covid symptoms; he voluntarily went to the lab for swab tests. The government had made it compulsory for people to take two doses of vaccinations for going to the mall, cinema theater, and commercial establishments.

 

12.15 PM:  The union territory of Puducherry witnessed a steep fall in number of fresh coronavirus cases with only seven being reported in the last 24 hours, a senior official of the Department of Health said on Monday, as per PTI. 
The seven new infections were identified at the end of the examination of 1,047 samples, Director of the Health Department G Sriramulu said, adding the overall caseload rose to 1,29,224.
Puducherry and Karaikal regions reported three new cases of infection each while Mahe added only one. Yanam, an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh, did not record any fresh infection, the Director said.
The number of active cases stood at 183 which included 45 patients undergoing treatment in hospitals and remaining 138 in home isolation, he said.
As many as 32 patients recovered and were discharged during the last 24 hours pushing the overall recoveries to 1,27,164.
No fresh fatality was reported from any of the four regions for the fourth straight day and the toll remained at 1,877, the Health Department Director said.
The department has so far tested 20,13,171 samples and has found 17,08,365 out of them to be negative.
The test positivity rate was 0.67 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.45 per cent and 98.45 per cent respectively, Sriramulu said.
The Department of Health has so far administered 13,08,227 doses which included 7,97,042 first doses and remaining 5,11,185 were second doses. 

12.10 PM: Thane has reported 86 new cases of coronavirus, raising the infection tally in the Maharashtra district to 5,70,546, an official said on Monday, as per PTI. 
These new cases were recorded on Sunday, he said.
The death toll in the district remained unchanged at 11,593 as no fatality was reported on Sunday, he said, adding that the COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane stood at 2.03 per cent.
In neighbouring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 1,38,816, while the death toll stands at 3,302, another official said.

9.45 AM: There have been 7,973 recoveries in the last 24 hours increasing the total recoveries to 3,41,30,768. India's active caseload stands at 91,456 lowest in 561 days. The active cases account for less than 1 per cent of the total cases.

9.44 AM: 133.17 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified a new variant of SARS-CoV-2. It has been named as Omicron. The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus, WHO has informed.

The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24th November 2021. The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta variant.

It has to be noted that India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakhs on August 23, 40 lakhs on September 5 and 50 lakhs on September 16. It went past 60 lakhs on September 28, 70 lakhs on October 11, crossed 80 lakhs on October 29, 90 lakhs on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crores on June 2.