Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 2 (IANS): With two cases of Omicron variant reported in the country - both in Karnataka, Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Thursday said the best way to tackle it is to return to the basic Covid protocols and ensure both doses of vaccines are taken.

"We are fully ready and all the protocols of how to handle the new variant have come from the Centre. The news is this variant spreads five times faster than the Delta variant. So while we have to return to the basics of using sanitisers, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing... all those who have to take the second dose of vaccines has to immediately take it," she said.

"At the moment, 96 per cent of the above aged 18 years have taken the first dose, but when it comes to the second dose so far only 65.3 per cent have taken it. So we want all those who are to take the second dose have to do it at the earliest," George added.

On Thursday, Kerala reported 4,700 new Covid cases after 59,702 samples were tested in the past 24 hours.