With the surge in Omicron cases across India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday emphasised that the fight against the pandemic is not over and directed authorities to send teams from the Centre to states which are reporting a surge in cases and have insufficient health infrastructure.

Days ahead of the Christmas and New Year festive season, PM Modi chaired a high-level meeting and directed the officials, saying, "we should be satark [alert] and saavdhan [attentive]" in view of the new variant.