New Delhi: Following the detection of two Omicron cases in Karnataka, India's health expert has emphasized on strict implementation of the Covid19 appropriate behaviour.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Dr Tamorish Kole, president of the Asian Society of Emergency Medicine said, "Omicron variant is a new challenge for us. Detection of this variant was expected in India. This variant is highly transmissible and infectious."
He, however, said, "Scientific community across the globe is also facing a challenge because there are low number of Omicron cases found. We have to carefully deal with the situation."
Omicron has been announced as a Variant of Concern (VoC) by WHO on November 26. Preliminary evidence suggests that Omicron may also increase reinfection risk, which is expected from the structural changes due to the mutations, and the number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces of South Africa.
"As of now, Delta is more severe than Omicron following the fact that we don't have too many Omicron cases in India, scientific community need to study more on Omicron as we don't know much about the variant," said Dr Suneela Garg, President of Organized Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG).
Interestingly, there is initial suggestions that Omicron may have a growth advantage over Delta.
Indian SARS CoV-2-Genomic Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG) said, "This variant is heavily mutated and it is predicted to be able to evade prior immunity from natural infection or from vaccines." As per the latest report of INSACOG, Omicron is characterized by 30 amino acid changes (15 in the receptor-binding domain), three small deletions and one small insertion in the spike protein compared to the original virus.
"Omicron has changes in genomic regions. The changes in Nucleocapsid (N) protein include the 203-204 site mutations recently reported to increase infectivity, as seen in Delta. The clinical aspects such as severity of illness in naive, previously infected, or vaccinated subjects are currently unknown," the INSACOG said.
"Booster dose may be considered for the elderly especially above 40 years of age since low levels of neutralising antibodies from current vaccines are unlikely to neutralize Omicron, although the risk of severe disease is still likely to be reduced," the INSACOG said.
As of now, Omicron has been found in 29 countries.
In India, two cases of Omicron has been detected in Karnataka in the last 24 hours. The Union Health Ministry has said that 10 passengers have also been found with RT PCR positive after they landed in India from abroad.
"36 flights with 6174 passengers have landed in India today out of which 10 have been found RT PCR positive. On the other hand, two Omicron cases have been detected in Karnataka in the last 24 hours," said Lav Aggrawal, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry.
He informed, "One person is 76 years old male and another is 46 years, old male."
"All airports are linked to a particular genomic sequencing laboratory to detect Omicron variant," said Agarwal while addressing a press conference over the present situation of the Covid19 pandemic in India and its prevention. What we need at present is adhering to the Covid appropriate behaviour and maintain social distancing," said Agarwal.
Agarwal said, "Omicron is still found mild and there is no severity among Omicron infected. It's five times more infectious than the Delta variants."
Dr Surjeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said, "Ever since WHO declared Omicron as VoC on November 26, as many as 883 samples have been sequenced. In the month of November, 6400 samples have been conducted genomic sequencing."
Talking about the development, Dr VK Paul, member Niti Aayog and chairman of the national task force on Covid19 said "We should expedite to complete the full dose of vaccination. Vaccination for us is a major protection against all kinds of variants."
When asked about a booster dose of the Covid19 vaccine, Dr Paul said "Whenever we find any concrete scientific evidence suggesting for booster dose, we will announce accordingly."
