Amid Omicron scare, NITI Aayog's Dr VK Paul says 'mask is universal vaccine' for COVID

The Omicron variant of the COVID-19 was designated as a 'variant of concern' by the World Health Organisation in November. While the Omicron variant cases have been increasing in the country, India's first two cases of the variant were detected in Karnataka.

In order to combat the growing threat of the Omicron variant, the Health Ministry of India conducted a press conference on Thursday to apprise of the curbs being imposed in the wake of the scare of the new variant. During the press conference, Dr. Vinod Kumar Paul, a member of the National Task Force on COVID-19, highlighted the importance of vaccines and masks and said that mask is a universal vaccine.

'Mask is a universal vaccine': Dr. VK Paul 

During the press conference conducted by the Health Ministry,  Dr VK Paul spoke about the importance of a mask and said, " The mask ultimately protects our body from these COVID-19 variants trying to enter our bodies, this is the universal vaccine. The importance of masks should be highlighted in situations like these, however, our country has always been imposing strict rules regarding the use of masks." 

He added, "As we have seen, countries that neglected the importance of masks are facing the threat of another pandemic. Hence I would like to emphasize again that masks are very important and we should continue using them as we did during the high-intensity period in the pandemic." 

Lav Agarwal, the Joint Secretary of Union Health Ministry, on Thursday announced that two cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been reported in India, Both the cases have been found in Karnataka. He said, "Two cases of Omicron detected in Karnataka so far through genome sequencing effort of INSACOG consortium of 37 laboratories established by the Ministry of Health. We need not panic, but awareness is absolutely essential. COVID apt behaviour is required."

(Image: AP)