Omicron tally 38, first case in Chandigarh; take call on booster dose, say experts

Chandigarh/Bengaluru, Dec 12

Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh reported their first Omicron case on Sunday, while Maharashtra and Karnataka each recorded one more case of the Covid-19 variant, taking the tally in the country to 38. All five persons in the cases reported on Sunday had arrived from foreign countries.

According to state health officials, a 20-year-old fully vaccinated man, who arrived in Chandigarh from Italy to meet his relatives, and a 34-year-old foreign traveller, who came from Ireland to Mumbai and then to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, have tested positive for the variant. A man who arrived from South Africa became the third person to test positive for Omicron in Karnataka, while a 40-year-old man tested positive after returning to Nagpur in Maharashtra from a West African country. The patient in Kerala is a native of the state who recently came from the UK.

ICMR develops kit to detect Omicron in 2 hrs

The Indian Council of Medical Research has developed a kit that can detect Omicron variant within two hours

At present, a minimum of 36 hours is required for targeted sequencing and four to five days for whole-genome sequencing to detect the variant

Till now, Omicron has been detected in Maharashtra (18), Rajasthan (9), Karnataka (3), Karnataka (3), Delhi (2), Andhra Pradesh (1), Kerala (1) and Chandigarh (1).

Scientists, meanwhile, said a booster dose against Covid-19 raised the amount of circulating antibodies and was shown to increased protection from symptomatic infection with Omicron. They underlined that boosters could be the simplest step forward, especially for the vulnerable.

Reacting to the statement of UK Health Security Agency that booster dose of Covishield is effective against Omicron and a third booster dose provides 70-75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection, virologists and epidemiologists underlined that booster doses of any vaccine exponentially raised antibody level.

Eminent virologist Dr Shahid Jameel said it must be ensured that those who got only one dose of Covishield get the second dose in 8-12 weeks instead of 12-16 weeks.

“Make a policy on boosters. What vaccines to use? Who should get it? And when? Make a policy and start vaccinating children starting with adolescents,” he said.

Jameel said in India, four vaccines could be used as boosters: Covaxin in people who got Covishield and vice versa, DNA vaccine ZyCov-D, Covovax protein vaccine from SII and Corbev ax-E protein vaccine from Biological E. — PTI