Centre asks states to impose night curfew, containment zones to curb Omicron spread

With the increasing number of Omicron cases coupled with a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Centre on Tuesday asked states to impose night curfew along with strict regulation on large gatherings.

The Health Ministry has asked states to impose restrictions such as night curfews and declare containment zones if districts either have a 10% positivity rate or occupancy in oxygen-supported or Intensive Care Units rises to 40%.

As a precautionary measure, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare asked the states and UTs to implement containment measures to contain the (VoC) Omicron saying that the new variant is at least 3 times more transmissible than Delta.

The government’s order comes a day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that increased social mixing over the holiday period in many countries would lead to a spike in cases, overwhelm health systems and result in more deaths.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in his letter to all states and UTs urged states to cut the number of people attending marriage and funerals and restrict numbers in offices, industries and public transport. He also said that the greater foresight, data analysis, dynamic decision making and strict containment actions are required at the local and district level.

Suggestions given in letter

For containment and restrictions, Centre suggests to keep the ‘District’ as a unit.

The Centre has asked all states and UTs to cut in number of people attending marriage and funerals.

Health Secretary letter states to restrict numbers in offices, industries and public transport.

At the district level keep constant review of emerging data regarding the population affected by COVID-19.

Geographical spread, hospital infrastructure and its utilization, manpower should be monitored.

Notifying Containment Zones, enforcement of perimeter of containment zones was suggested.

In case of all new clusters, prompt notification of ‘containment zones’ and ‘buffer zones’ should be done.