<span style="color: #222222;">Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry today said that two cases of Omicron variant of COVID have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours.<br />''<br />'' In a media briefing in New Delhi today, Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal has said, both the cases are from Karnataka. He said, all primary contact tracing and secondary contact tracing of both the cases have been detected and are being tested.<br />''                      <br />'' Mr. Agarwal has said, 373 cases of Omicron variant have been detected in 29 countries so far. He said, maximum number of 183 cases have been reported from South Africa followed by Botswana and Netherlands. On the increased transmissibility and severity of Omicron variant by WHO, Mr. Agarwal said, early data suggest an increased growth rate but more evidence based study is required.<br />''          <br />'' Mr. Agarwal said, Government of India has advised the States and Union Territories to focus on testing, contact tracing and augmentation of health infrastructure to effectively deal with new variant. He said, passengers arriving from 'at risk' countries need to undergo RT-PCR test on arrival. He said, all the States and UTs have been advised to send all positive samples for genome sequencing to INSACOG labs in prompt manner. Mr. Agarwal said, all the States and UTs must ensure creating required awareness within community on the emerging evidence on Omicron.<br />''    <br />'' Stressing on the vaccination and adherence of COVID-related protocols, Mr. Agarwal said, COVID vaccination coverage has scaled a new height in the country. He said, more than 125 crore doses have been administered in the country so far. He said, average daily vaccination rate continuously increased in the country. He said, in May this year, 19.69 lakh vaccine doses per day were administered in the country which reached to 59.32 lakh per day in last month. Talking about the positive impact of Nationwide COVID Vaccination Campaign 'Har Ghar Dastak', he said, first dose increased by 5.9 per cent and second dose coverage increased by 11.7 per cent during this campaign.<br />'' <br />''On the COVID-19 situation in the country, Mr. Agarwal said, India is witnessing declining trend in the daily cases, however, some States and Districts are still witnessing higher positivity rate. He said, Kerala and Maharashtra are the two states that have more than 10 thousand active cases which constitute 55 per cent of the cases.</span><br />