India reports 1st Omicron death, govt revises norms

Amid a whopping spike in Covid-19 cases, the Union health ministry on Wednesday released revised guidelines for home isolation for mild and asymptomatic infections, saying such patients will stand discharged after at least seven days from testing positive and no fever for three successive days. Earlier, home isolation lasted 10 days from the onset of symptoms.

The health ministry advised people not to rush for self-medication, blood investigation or radiological imaging like chest Xrays or CT scans without consulting a doctor. There was no need for re-testing after the home isolation was over. Even the asymptomatic contacts of infected persons need not undergo Covid-19 tests and only monitor their health in home quarantine.

India, meanwhile, on Wednesday saw its first

Covid-19 death linked to Omicron after the samples of a 73-year-old man in Rajasthan, who died last week, showed the presence of the new variant.

The man, who was found infected with Omicron in genome sequencing and who had tested negative for the infection twice, died in a Udaipur hospital on December

31. He died due to postCovid pneumonia along with co-morbidities – diabetes, hypertension and hypothyroidism. He was fully vacci nated and had no significant contact and travel history.

The government has also decided not to go for mix-and-match for the Covid-19 “precautionary” vaccine dose, which is to be administered to healthcare/frontline workers and senior citizens aged 60 and above with co-morbidities from January 10. This means those who have taken two doses of Covishield will get the same vaccine as their precautionary jab, and those who got two doses of Covaxin will get the same vaccine as well.

The need for the “precaution” dose was necessitated given the fast spread of Omicron. The government, which also started vaccinating children in the

15-18 age group, has given the first dose to

1.06 crore children in this age group over the past three days.