Mumbai: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday that 161 cases of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, have been reported in India.
“As of now, there are 161 omicron cases in India… We are monitoring the situation daily with experts,” the minister told the Rajya Sabha while replying to the debate on the COVID-19 situation.
He said the government has taken steps to deal with the situation if the virus spreads.
“With our experience during the first and second waves, we have arranged buffer stocks of critical drugs to ensure that we do not face problems if the variant spreads.”
He said that the states and union territories have a sufficient number of vaccines against COVID-19 for the vaccination campaign, which has also increased the vaccine manufacturing capacity of the country.
“Today all states and UTs have adequate quantity of vaccines, 17 crore doses available with them. Our manufacturing capacity has increased. Today India has the capacity to manufacture 31 crore doses of vaccine per month. In the next two months, it’ll further rise to 45 crore doses per month,” the minister said.
“Under PM Modi’s leadership, with the efforts of our healthcare workers, 88 per cent of first doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered and 58 per cent of second doses administered so far. The majority of the population in India is vaccinated today,” he added.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and like us on Facebook for the latest updates and interesting stories.
