Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), including Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan, has warned the Tamil Nadu Health Department against the possibility of a sudden spurt in Omicron cases. The experts have warned of the possibility of a hike in Omicron cases following inadequate vaccines and lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour during the upcoming festival season.

Swaminathan in a review meeting with the Chief Minister, Health Minister and Health Department officials virtually on Friday said that the Omicron variant may not give time to prepare for healthcare providers. The WHO Chief Scientist, according to the state Health Department officials, warned that the Omicron variant has a high transmission rate and it evades antibodies and immunity.

The experts cautioned the government to be prepared with more beds, oxygen cylinders, drugs and testing kits. The state’s Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan urged people to celebrate Christmas, New Year and Pongal in a subdued manner.

He said that people must try to have online ‘darshans’ and virtual celebrations instead of physical visits to religious places. The department will release education materials and media briefs to prevent misinformation.

However, the STATE government will not impose any fresh restrictions and the existing curbs would continue till December 31. Meanwhile, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in an official statement appealed to the people to make use of the vaccination facilities through camps across the state.

Meanwhile, amid the Omicron scare and surge in cases in various parts of the country, the Union Health Ministry on Saturday said that multi-disciplinary Central teams would be deployed in ten identified states.

“A decision has been taken to deploy multi-disciplinary Central teams to 10 identified States some of which are either reporting an increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or slow vaccination pace,” says Union Health Ministry in an official statement

Multi-disciplinary Central teams are to be deployed in Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab. These teams will be stationed in the states for three to five days and will work along with the State Health Authorities.

As per the Ministry, these teams will specifically look at areas of contact tracing, including surveillance, containment operations, and COVID-19 testing including sending of adequate samples from clusters to the INSACOG network for genome sequencing.