India News | Restrictive Measures Against Omicron Not Needed in Bihar as of Now: Nitish
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday ruled out the probability of bringing in restrictive measures in the state, amid rising cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in the country, which led neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh to go in for night curfews.
Patna, Dec 25 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday ruled out the probability of bringing in restrictive measures in the state, amid rising cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in the country, which led neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh to go in for night curfews.
"Yahan abhi koi avashyakta nahin hain" (it is not needed here as of now) was the terse reply of Kumar when he was asked about night curfews being introduced by the Yogi Adityanath administration in UP.
Bihar adopted similar measures when COVID-19 first struck in 2020 and again earlier this year when the second wave of the infection caused devastation.
The new variant, considered to be not very severe though highly contagious, has triggered fear of a fresh spike.
States such as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, besides UP, have gone for measures like prohibitory orders and night curfews.
At least 415 Omicron cases have been detected in India so far, out of which 115 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated on Saturday.
Bihar has not reported a single case of the new strain though the health department admits that the absence of genome sequencing facility in the state may hamper timely detection.
Superintendent of AIIMS, Patna Chandramani Singh said it "does not matter" whether a patient is afflicted with the older or the latest variant as "treatment of both is going to be the same".
"If someone is infected with Omicron, he or she will test positive in RT-PCR examination for which facilities are very much available," he said.
Notably, the state's caseload as of now looks very much under control. The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state, which has a population of around 13 crores, is well under 100.
(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)