PM Modi to chair meet on COVID situation, vaccination amid concerns over Omicron

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a key meeting at 10.30 am on Saturday to take stock of the COVID-19 and vaccination situation in the country. Top officials will attend the meeting, ANI reported, and comes amid global concern over the new B.1.1.529 strain of coronavirus named 'Omicron'.

The outbreak of the new coronavirus variant, found in Southern Africa, has been flagged by scientists to be far more virulent than the Delta strain that battered India during the second wave of the pandemic. It is expected to have an alarmingly high number of mutations that might make Omicron more resistant to vaccines, induce more severe symptoms, and increase transmissibility.

First detected in South Africa this week, the new COVID variant has also been identified in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel. It has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern.

Also Read: WHO names new COVID strain 'Omicron', classifies it as 'highly transmissible'

The WHO has asked countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database.

Countries are also advised that where capacity exists and in coordination with the international community, they should perform field investigations and laboratory assessments to improve understanding of the potential impacts of the VOC on COVID-19 epidemiology, severity, the effectiveness of public health and social measures, diagnostic methods, immune responses, antibody neutralisation, or other relevant characteristics.
On November 25, India called for stringent screening of passengers from South Africa, Botswana, and Hong Kong. The Union

Health Ministry said, "This variant... has serious public health implications in view of recently relaxed visa restrictions and opening of international travel."

Also Read: New COVID-19 variant: Countries that have banned travel to South Africa

The government said late on Friday that scheduled international passenger flights to and from the country could return to normal, but only for nations not deemed " at risk" by the health ministry.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Singapore have stopped flights from Botswana, South Africa and four other African countries.

The United States, on Saturday, joined the European Union and several other countries in instituting travel restrictions on visitors from southern Africa. The White House said the US will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries in the region beginning Monday (November 29).