A day after two Omicron cases were confirmed in Karnataka (and they are the first Omicron variant cases officially confirmed in India), the administration in Andhra Pradesh has been reportedly getting its act together. It is going to amp up the tracing aspect of the strategy to combat Coronavirus.

As per a national daily, 30 foreign returnees who had arrived at the Vizag airport in the last 10 days have been searched for. The authorities want to test them for coronavirus and find out if they are positive as per RT-PCR testing. They are not responding to phone calls and have been deemed to be missing for now.

Meanwhile, there are reports that Omicron is not as lethal as many fear it might be. Most of those infected by it don't need hospitalization.

There is widespread criticism that global governance failed to rise to the occasion and that's why a new variant has emerged. "Omicron is a consequence of failure of global institutions. WTO’s inability to set norms for a patent waiver. WHO’s inability to redress vaccine inequity. IMF’s inability to link SDR increases to Covid-19 needs," opined commentator Syed Akbaruddin.