The Omicron variant of Covid-19 was found in nearly 75% of the recent genome sequencing test results submitted by India to a global database in January, compared with about 19% in end December, people familiar with the matter said, which shows the fast-rising presence of the highly transmissible variant in the infected population.
The Omicron variant is now in community transmission in India, INSACOG, the Indian Sars-CoV-2 genomics consortium of 10 central and 28 regional laboratories, announced in its Sunday bulletin, based on whole genome sequencing results.
The heavily mutated Omicron variant spreads three times faster than any other variant, but is believed to be less than half as likely as Delta to lead to serious infections, according to current scientific evidence.
“The sequencing results reflect the trend that the Omicron variant is gaining prominence over Delta, especially in the cities that are worst affected,” a government official said on condition of anonymity. “But that does not mean Delta is not present anymore within the community. We are also getting samples positive for the Delta variant. Therefore, people need to be very cautious.”
{{/usCountry}}“The sequencing results reflect the trend that the Omicron variant is gaining prominence over Delta, especially in the cities that are worst affected,” a government official said on condition of anonymity. “But that does not mean Delta is not present anymore within the community. We are also getting samples positive for the Delta variant. Therefore, people need to be very cautious.”
{{/usCountry}}The Indian samples are both from international travellers and from within the community that tested positive for Covid-19. “These are results of Covid-19 tests conducted in all dedicated labs from across the country, and is a mix from travellers and sentinel surveillance samples,” said the official.
Although traveller samples dominated the mix earlier, the number of samples testing positive from within the community is rising fast.
“We need to do more genomic sequencing as not every case is due to the Omicron variant. As recent data from Karnataka show, around 49% of samples sequenced from the state in December and January so far were of the Delta variant,” said Giridhara R Babu, head of epidemiology at the Indian Institute of Public Health.
“It’s definitely not the time to drop guard, and observing Covid-appropriate behavior is as important now as it was earlier to prevent getting infected,” he said.
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