No evidence to suggest vaccines aren't effective against Omicron

Amid rising cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19, the central government on Friday said that it is yet to be proved that the vaccines are not effective against it. 

Addressing a health briefing, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry said, "There is no evidence to suggest that vaccines are not effective against the Omicron variant of coronavirus."

He also added that so far, there are 101 Omicron cases across 11 states in the country.

On the other hand, Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog on Omicron said that genome sequencing of every sample is not possible. "It is a surveillance and pandemic assessment & tracking tool, not a diagnostic tool as of now. We can assure sufficient systematic sampling is being undertaken," he said during the briefing.

The government also advised people to avoid non-essential travel and keep New Year celebrations low-key.

"As the Omicron variant is spreading very fast across Europe and most parts of the world, there is a need to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings and keep festivities low-key. New Year celebrations have to be low-key," ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said.

He stressed that districts that have over five per cent positivity rate need to ensure restrictive measures until it comes below 5 per cent and stays such for at least two weeks.