Guwahati, Dec 23 (PTI) The Assam government on Thursday said no case of the omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected in the state so far.

Replying to a Zero Hour discussion initiated by BJP MLA Suman Haripriya in the assembly, Health and Family Welfare Minister Keshab Mahanta said the state government is preparing itself to deal with a possible outbreak of the variant.

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"There is no case of omicron in Assam as yet. We have taken all necessary steps to prevent the spread of the variant, classified as a 'variant of concern' by the World Health Organisation," he said.

"We are training our field officers again. We have been asked to focus on tracking and full vaccination. The chief minister has also discussed the preparedness with officials of the Health Department," he added.

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A total of 236 cases of the omicron variant have been recorded in 16 states and Union Territories in India till date.

Meanwhile, Assam reported 113 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the tally to 6,19,932, while the death toll mounted to 6,153 with one more fatality, a bulletin issued by the National Health Mission said.

Altogether, 6,11,530 people have recovered from the disease.

The total number of vaccine beneficiaries stood at 3,67,14,946.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)