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Even if Omicron may cause less severe disease: WHO chief scientist's warning
As of Friday morning, India's Omicron tally stands at 1,270 with experts apprehending that Omicron has started replacing the Delta variant in the country already.
Chief scientist of World Health Organization Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Friday said hospitalisation due to Omicron is rising across the world, mostly in unvaccinated people. Sounding an alarm for countries which are beginning to feel the heat of Omicron, Dr Swaminathan said, "Though Omicron may cause less severe disease, a small % of a huge number is still very large and can overwhelm health systems." Congratulating health workers, the chief scientist said vaccination protects against hospitalisation and death -- be it caused by Omicron, Delta or any other variant of covid.
'Tsunami' of Covid cases may lead to collapse of health systems, says WHO chief
The warning comes as India is seeing a sudden increase in the number of daily Covid cases, possibly driven by Omicron. As of Friday morning, India's Omicron tally stands at 1,270 with experts apprehending that Omicron has started replacing the Delta variant in the country already. Reports said almost 80 per cent of cases in India are Omicron now.
Talking about the effectiveness of vaccines, Dr Swaminathan earlier tweeted, "As expected, T cell immunity holding up better against Omicron. This will protect us against severe disease. Please get vaccinated if you have not". In its latest epidemiological update, the world body said the risks related to the Omicron variant is very high and the variant has overtaken Delta in the US and the UK.
The Centre on Thursday observed that India is seeing a sudden surge which has started only three days ago. Alerting states to take utmost precaution against the spread of Omicron in the festive season, the Centre said that there is no need to panic as the country is prepared to handle a surge. India's surge could be part of the global surge driven by Omicron, the health ministry has noted.
The health ministry observed that though the number of Covid infections is increasing rapidly, the fatality rate is stable. This may be because of India's extensive vaccine coverage or the nature of the new variant or both. Omicron, first identified in South Africa on November 24, is known to be spreading fast across the world. The first Omicron cases in India were detected on December 2 and within a month, the variant has spread to over 1,000 people, whose samples have been genome-sequenced. Many experts believe the actual spread of the variant could be more than this as all samples are not being sent for genome sequencing.
