Omicron less severe but highly infectious, say experts; public health measures afoot

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 29

With the country’s Omicron tally rising to 781 across 21 states and UTs on Wednesday, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said there was a clear experimental and clinical data supporting very high immune escape potential of Omicron, but initial estimates showed the severity of illness lower than what was seen in outbreaks reported earlier.

• Editorial: Lockdown no solution

“Appropriate public health measures and investigations are being conducted in India for surveillance of Omicron,” INSACOG said, while noting that globally there appeared to be significantly reduced ability of vaccines or prior infection to protect against symptomatic infection caused by Omicron variant.

In its bulletin released on Wednesday, INSACOG said, “Delta continues to be the most prevalent variant of concern globally, but Omicron has entirely displaced it in southern Africa and is on track to become the dominant variant in Britain and elsewhere.” According to the Union Health Ministry, of the 781 Omicron patients, 241 have recovered or migrated. Delhi recorded the maximum number of 238 Omicron cases, followed by Maharashtra (167), Gujarat (73), Kerala (65) and Telangana (62).

With 9,195 people testing positive for Covid in a day, India’s total tally rose to 3,48,08,886, while the active cases increased to 77,002. The death toll has climbed to 4,80,592 with 302 new fatalities. The daily rise in new infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the past 62 days now. On the vaccine front, the cumulative doses crossed 43.15 crore.

PM Modi’s visit to UAE postponed

PM Narendra Modi’s planned visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the first half of the next month has been postponed in view of the rising cases of Omicron, sources said.

Ready for virtual poll rallies: BJP

Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said the BJP was ready for virtual rallies in all poll-bound states, including Punjab, and would follow the ECI guidelines in the wake of Omicron threat

India to export 7 cr doses of Covovax

The government has permitted the export of 7 crore doses of ‘Covovax’ produced by Serum Institute of India here to Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, official sources said.