Covid-19 new variant Omicron has totally spoiled the New Year celebration. The world had not yet recovered from the danger of Covid-19, and then suddenly this new Virus Omicron arrived and made the situation lethal.
23 states in the country have reported active cases of Omicron. Out of these 23 states, Maharashtra has reported the maximum numbers of Omicron cases i.e. 460 in numbers and Delhi reported 351 active cases. These numbers will increase drastically as per the forecast by Juliet Pulliam, Director of the South African DSI-NSF Center for Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis.
Pradeep Vyas, Additional Chief Secretary of Maharashtra cautioned individuals not to be quieted by the story that the third influx of Omicron is gentle and not deadly. He further quoted that those people who have not been vaccinated yet must take the third wave seriously as the covid-19 variant Omicron is equally deadly and fatal.
Due to the spike in the Covid-19 cases in the capital city of India, New Delhi. The Arvind Kejriwal government banned all the events, canceled all the political, social, cultural, sports events. New Delhi has experienced 120+ new covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours but no death of any individual has been registered yet. Formerly, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital was taken into the consideration for the Omicron treatment, but the latest update is that the New Delhi government has added 4 new hospitals to counter Omicron are Max Saket, Fortis Vasant Kunj, Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital, and Batra Hospital Tughlakabad.
On 04 Jan, the Delhi government announced there will be a weekend curfew and private offices will run with 50% capacity. Furthermore, government officials will work from home.
Out of the 23 states that reported Omicron, Uttar Pradesh became the 12th state to report the Omicron case. Initially, there were 8 cases of Omicron reported by the officials and in the last 24 hours, 3 got recovered with zero death till now. On Omicron, CM Yogi said that the new Virus Omicron is weak as compared to Covid-19; it is just like a “Viral fever”, he further added that “Do not get Panic” but take proper precautions.
Yogi Sarkar imposed a night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am and only 200 people are allowed to attend the marriage function. And they need to take permission from their respective administrations before proceeding. “No mask, No goods” campaign has been started and shopkeepers were told to follow this on priority. The state government has started a vaccination program for the age group of 15-18 and to make the program successful 39 centers and 2100 booths have been installed.
Bihar became the new state to impose a night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am till 21 January.
To minimize the risk of new Virus omicron many other states have imposed strict night curfews. There is a big list of States who have imposed night curfews to tackle the new variant of Covid-19 Omicron. States accompanied with their night curfew timings are New Delhi (11 pm to 5 am), Haryana (11 pm to 5 am), Gujarat (11 pm to 5 am), Maharashtra (9 pm to 6 am), Madhya Pradesh (11 pm to 5 am), Uttar Pradesh (11 pm to 5 am), Karnataka (10 Pm to 5 am), Uttrakhand (11 Pm to 5 am), Bihar (10 Pm to 5 am).
Health Experts Views on Imposing Night Curfews
Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist WHO, said that there is no science behind night curfew to stop the new Covid-19 variant Omicron.
Fortis hospital Department head, Dr. Vikas Maurya favored the statement and quoted “night curfew cannot break the transmission chain; it might slow down the transmission”.
BBMP Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Gupta on raising active cases of Covid-19 variant Omicron in Bangalore said that people must get alert and informed promptly if any case is found.
Experts have shared their views on night curfew, restrictions on the movement at night in Bangalore. He further quoted “now it’s up to the government to take the final decision”.
