Omicron Wave: Focus On Vaccination, Local Containment, No Reason To Panic, Modi Tells CMs

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that vaccination was the best weapon against COVID-19 and stressed on local containment as the country is in the midst of a third wave driven by the Omicron variant.

Modi held a virtual meeting with chief ministers, including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, to review the COVID situation in the country. The meeting came on a day when India registered over 2.47 lakh fresh cases.

The daily COVID caseload breached the 10,000-mark in Odisha on Thursday as 10,059 more people, including 872 in the age group of 0-18 years, tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.

This is the second meeting chaired by Modi in a week to take stock of the COVID situation.

“It is very important to safeguard the economy and livelihood of common people while framing COVID strategies. The focus must be on local containment,” the PM said.

“Whatever doubts we had about Omicron are now getting cleared. The infection rate is significantly higher as compared to the variants reported earlier,” he added.

“We have to stay alert but we also need to be aware that there’s no need to panic. We have to be careful amid this festive season,” he said.

A “pre-emptive, pro-active and collective” approach has to be adopted, Modi added.