Amid Omicron scare, ECI & Health Ministry meet ahead of Assembly elections in 5 states

The Election Commission of India met senior Health Ministry officials on Monday for discussing the COVID-19 situation in the country ahead of the Assembly elections in five states. Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, who was also present at the meeting, apprised the Commission on the condition of the pandemic and the vaccination coverage, especially in the states going for assembly elections in 2023. 

According to sources, the ECI and Health Ministry discussed the rising number of COVID-19 and Omicron cases in the country especially in the five states going to Assembly elections next year followed by the vaccination scenario. Apart from that, the commission and the ministry will also hold another meeting in January next year to have a more comprehensive discussion and review of the situation. 

Meanwhile, five states which are all set to go into assembly elections in 2023 include Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Punjab. In view of the sudden spike in Omicron cases across the country, the Allahabad High Court has also made a request to the Election Commission of India for postponing the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh considering the spread of the Omicron variant. Along with that, the court has also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban all the public meetings and rallies being carried out in the state for poll campaigning. 

Notably, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) along with election commissioners is also scheduled to visit Uttar Pradesh to take stock of the poll preparations over there. Earlier, the commission had already visited Punjab Goa, and Uttarakhand as a part of its pre-poll stock-taking exercise. 

COVID-19 in India

India on Monday has reported fresh 6,531 cases in the last 24 hours taking the active COVID-19 tally to 75,841. Apart from that with 7,141 recoveries and 315 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the total recovery and death recovery toll stands at 3,42,37,495 and 4,79,997 respectively. 

Along with that, a total of 578 cases of Omicron variant has also been reported from across the country with Delhi leading the tally with 142 cases followed by Maharashtra with 141 cases.