The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is in the community transmission stage in India and it has also become dominant in multiple metros said Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) in its weekly bulletin on Sunday. “Omicron is now in community transmission stage in India and has become dominant in multiple metros, where new cases have been rising exponentially. BA.2 lineage is in a substantial fraction in India and S gene dropout based screening is thus likely to give high false negatives,” it said.
“While most Omicron cases so far have been asymptomatic or mild, hospitalizations and ICU cases have been increasing in the current wave. The threat level remains unchanged,” it further said.
“The recently reported B.1.640.2 lineage is being monitored. There is no evidence of rapid spread and while it has features of immune escape, it is currently not a variant of concern. So far, no case detected in India,” INSACOG added.
INSACOG further said, “Omicron wave continues to expand globally, with new highs being established for daily infections. The rate of hospitalization during this wave is much lower compared to the previous wave with Delta, attributable to both intrinsically reduced severity with
lesser propensity to cause pneumonia, and higher population immunity. However, due to the very high number of cases, the absolute number of hospitalizations has crossed previous highs in many countries and is creating stress on healthcare systems. While deaths have been much lower during the new wave, compared to previous waves, there have been Omicron-associated deaths. In data so far, the majority of severe cases and deaths have been in unvaccinated subjects, with high protection associated with vaccination or previous infection.”
VP NAIDU TESTS POSITIVE
Ahead of the Budget session of Parliament, 875 staff members have tested Covid-19 positive in the House so far, said official sources on Sunday. As per official sources, as many as 2,847 Covid-19 tests were conducted till 20 January, out of which 875 parliamentary staff members tested positive. Of these, a total of 915 tests were done by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, out of which 271 cases found positive against coronavirus infection. On Sunday afternoon, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu also tested positive for Covid-19 in Hyderabad and said that he has isolated himself.
COVID SITUATION
India reported 333,533 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the active caseload to 2,187,205, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday.
Delhi continued to register a decline in its daily Covid-19 caseload, logging 9,197 new cases during the last 24 hours, said the state government on Sunday.
As per the bulletin provided by the Health Department, the positivity rate for the day has declined to 13.32%. As many as 34 people lost their lives in the last 24 hours.
Mumbai reported 2,550 new cases and 13 deaths on Sunday, said a health bulletin by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
However cases continued to skyrocket in Kerala and Karnataka, with numbers rising to 45, 449 and 50,210 respectively in the last 24 hours.