Night curfew imposed in MP as states report rise in Omicron cases
NEW DELHI: The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday imposed a night curfew across the state, amid fears of surge in cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
“After five months, the number of Covid-19 positive cases increased to 30 in a day. No case of Omicron has been reported from MP so far but we can’t take risk as positivity rate in neighbouring states is increasing. We are imposing night curfew in MP from 11 PM to 5 AM. If require, more restrictions will be invoked in MP,” chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.
With 30 fresh cases, the Covid-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 793,581 on Thursday, a health department official said, adding the death toll remained unchanged at 10,531.
Madhya Pradesh became the second state after Gujarat to impose night curfew, even as Rajasthan is expected to decide on curbs on Friday after a meeting of chief minister Ashok Gehlot with health officials.
Madhya Pradesh has not reported any Omicron case so far even though 20 samples have been sent for genome sequencing.
On Thursday, 90 new cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 were reported taking the tally to 354. Out of these, 104 patients have recovered.
As many as 33 new Omicron variant cases were reported from Tamil Nadu, which till a day ago had only one case. Karnataka reported 12 new cases, taking the state’s tally to 31 while five Omicron cases in Kerala took its tally to 29. Odisha added two more cases on Thursday, taking its tally to four. Till Thursday evening, Maharashtra has reported maximum 65 cases, followed by 64 in Delhi.
According to health experts, Omicron spreads three times faster than the Delta variant, but the infection is milder.
Health ministry officials said most of the Omicron cases in the country are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Many of them have been discharged from hospitals, officials said.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his government was preparing an action plan for home isolation of Omicron patients, if there is surge, as majority of the cases are of mild infections.
In Odisha, health officials said the government has not imposed any restrictions for Christmas and New Year. However, entry into select temples like Maa Tarini temple in Keonjhar district has been on few days.
In Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath asked all district officials to take appropriate steps as per the latest guidelines issued by the Centre to check the spread of Omicron variant. A senior government official said district magistrates have been empowered to impose restrictions for Christmas and New Year celebrations.
In Himachal Pradesh, too, the district magistrates have been empowered to impose restrictions if the test positivity rate in a week increases to over 10%. At present, the TPR in less than 1%.