NEW DELHI, Jan 3: The Centre has asked 50 per cent of its staff to work from home in view of a fresh wave of covid spreading fast in the country. Persons with disabilities and pregnant women employees have also been exempted from attending the offices, an order issued by the Ministry of Personnel on Monday said.

The order also said that the Central Government officers/staff will have to follow staggered timing to avoid overcrowding in the offices. Those being asked to work from home are below the level of Under Secretary.

Besides, all the officers/staff residing in covid containment zones have also been exempted from coming to office till containment zones are de-notified, it said.

"Physical attendance of government servants below the level of Under Secretary shall be restricted to 50 per cent of the actual strength and the remaining 50 per cent shall work from home," the order said.

To ensure further safety, biometric attendance was discontinued for all employees till January 31, the tester being a high touch surface, likely to be contaminated, to be avoided by all means.

"Keeping in view the rise in #COVID cases in the last few days, the BIOMETRIC ATTENDANCE for govt officials and employees is being suspended with immediate effect, till further orders. Under leadership of PM Sh @NarendraModi, this decision has been taken in the interest of safety and health of the govt employees," Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh tweeted.

All employees will be required to mark their attendance physically in attendance registers.

According to the Union Ministry of Health, the Omicron tally in the country has reached 1,700, of which 639 have recovered or been discharged. Maharashtra topped the chart with 510 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi with 351 cases.

There were 33,750 new cases reported from across the country on Sunday, taking the tally to 3,49,22,882 while there were only 6,358 daily cases a week ago. However, the death rate has not shown any increase.