As India’s Omicron Covid variant tally crossed 101 cases on Friday, Dec 17,  the government urged people to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings citing rapid rate of transmission of the new variant across the world and the WHO’s recent warning that Omicron would outpace Delta at current rates. Indian Council of Medical Research DG Balram Bhargava said that with Omicron spreading fast across various parts of the world, “it was time to avoid non-essential travel, mass gatherings and time to observe low intensity festivities in the New Year.” He also said that 24 districts of concern (19 with weekly Covid positivity rate between 5 and 10 per cent and five with positivity above 10 per cent) needed to ensure restrictive measures until the rate fell below 5 per cent and remained at that level for two weeks. Of the 101 Omicron cases, Maharashtra has 32, Delhi 22, Rajasthan 17, Karnataka, Telangana eight each; and Gujarat and Kerala five each.