It is being said by all across the globe that Omicron will turn dominant by next month and that everyone should be ready to tackle it. But is India ready for this wave, a third wave! Though all the states claim they have all the infrastructure and necessary personnel at hand, and also confident to take on the Covid-19 new variant. But going by the people’s attitude towards the pandemic, Omicron is likely to bring the third wave to country!
Omicron
The hyper mutated Omicron Covid-19 variant infects and multiplies 70 times faster than the Delta variant and the original SARS-CoV-2 in human lungs, according to a study. This may explain the reason why Omicron is transmitting much faster between humans than previous variants, said researchers from the LKS Faculty of Medicine at The University of Hong Kong (HKU Med). The variant is now spread to about 77 countries as per the World Health Organization (WHO).
Four more cases of Covid-19 variant Omicron have been confirmed in Kerala, state Health Minister Veena George said on Wednesday night. With this the total cases of the variant in Kerala has reached 5 and in India — 73.
So far, Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 32, followed by Rajasthan at 17. Omicron cases have also been reported in Karnataka (3), Gujarat (4), Telangana (2), West Bengal (1), Andhra Pradesh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and Union Territories of Delhi (6) and Chandigarh (1). The Omicron variant was first detected in India in Bengaluru.
A 24-year-old woman from Kenya and a 23-year-old man from Somalia, who landed in Hyderabad on December 12, have tested positive for the variant, a Telangana health official said on Wednesday. State Director of Public Health G Srinivasa Rao told reporters that the two foreign nationals were asymptomatic. Though they did not come from at-risk countries, their samples were randomly collected and sent for genome sequencing in line with the protocols.
Also Read: Breaking: Omicron enters Telangana!
India reported 7,974 fresh Coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking its overall tally of Covid-19 cases to 3,47,18,602, while the number of active cases in the country declined to 87,245, according to data from the Union Health Ministry on Thursday. With 343 fresh fatalities, the Covid-19 death toll climbed to 4,76,478, as per Health Ministry’s data updated at 8 am. The single-day rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the past 49 days now. The active cases in the country now comprise 0.25% of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.38%, the highest since March 2020, the Health Ministry said.
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