Govt tracking Covid situation: Health min

India has stepped up surveillance for Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the severity of which is anticipated to be low even though scientific evidence is still evolving, said Union health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday, adding that a decision on booster dose and Covid-19 jabs for children will be taken on the basis of scientific guidance from experts, .

The health minister’s statement comes a day after India detected its first two cases of the new variant in Karnataka.

A statement released by the health ministry on Friday said the Indian government is monitoring the situation closely and is issuing suitable guidelines from time to time. Meanwhile, the scientific and medical community is geared up for developing and deploying diagnostics, carrying out genomic surveillance, generating evidence about viral and epidemiologic characteristics, and development of therapeutics, it said.

The ministry, while not denying that the infection won’t spread in India as Omicron cases are increasingly being reported from countries outside of South Africa and given its characteristics, it is likely to spread to more countries, said that the scale and magnitude of rise in cases and