DHARWAD: The first case of Covid-19 due to omicron virus variant in Dharwad district has been confirmed in a 54-year-old man.
Confirming this, Health Minister Dr. Sudhakar K tweeted on Monday morning, “Five cases of omicron have been confirmed on December 19: Dharwad: 54 yr male, Bhadravathi: 20 yr female, Udupi: 82 yr male and 73 yr female, Mangaluru: 19 yr female.
With this, Karnataka’s Omicron count is now at least 19 and India’s tally has reached 156.
A day before, on December 18, the World Health Organization (WHO) had said that the Omicron, which had been classified as a ‘variant of concern’, is transmitting faster than Delta and has already reached 89 countries.
Noting that the variant outranks Delta in transmissibility but is less severe, the WHO clarified that the Omicron should not be dismissed as a mild variant and people must be vigilant. The global body also urged South-East Asian countries to urgently scale-up public health and social measures as well as vaccinations.
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, said in a statement, “Countries can, and must, prevent the spread of Omicron with the proven health and social measures. Our focus must continue to be to protect the least protected and those at high risk.”
