It has been confirmed by the government officials that the Omicron variant of coronavirus has started substituting the Delta strain in India in terms of the rising number of cases as 80 per cent of international travellers have tested positive for this new variant. A top virologist has said also recently stated that we should now accept the SARS-CoV-2 virus is part of our lives.
“We will have to learn to live with SARS-CoV-2 and its variants which will continue to emerge. There will be many waves, time and again. But fortunately, Omicron seems comparatively less severe than other variants,” Dr Gagandeep Kang, a top virologist mentioned in an interview to the news agency ANI.
“I believe we should be sending children to school, as generally Covid-19 infections are not much severe in children. Data available to inform a decision as to which vaccine should be used as a booster dose in India is very little.” Dr Kang said.
We will have to learn to live with SARS-CoV-2 & its variants which will continue to emerge. There will be many waves, time & again. But fortunately, #Omicron seems comparatively less severe than other variants: Dr. Gagandeep Kang, a virologist pic.twitter.com/YrmIQ2T0NW
— ANI (@ANI) December 31, 2021
A third of all infected with Omicron in the country were found to be slightly symptomatic, while the rest were asymptomatic.
India reported 16,764 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 days as per the Covid bulletin released on Friday, a spike for the third day which has pushed the country’s coronavirus tally to 34,838,804.
The total cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 cases has gone up to 1,270 with Maharashtra and Delhi reporting 450 and 320 cases respectively, according to the Union health ministry.
The Centre had on Thursday urged 19 states and UTs, categorised as regions of ‘concern’, to ramp up testing “in a big way” in order to identify positive cases promptly and prevent community transmission due to the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant as compared to the Delta strain.
