In less than three weeks, India has recorded 172 cases of Omicron, according to a leading virologist, which is not a “insignificant quantity” and suggests that many infections are remaining undetected. More Omicron cases were detected in less days than the initial B.1 novel coronavirus that started the pandemic in January 2020, according to data. The increased fears come at a time when the variation is prompting lockdowns in Europe, where cases are fast increasing, as well as putting a virus-weary globe on edge.
As of Monday evening, as per information collated by the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), 172 cases of Omicron had been recorded, including 54 in Maharashtra, 28 in Delhi, 20 in Telangana, 19 in Karnataka, 17 in Rajasthan, 15 in Kerala and 11 in Gujarat. The first Omicron case was reported in Karnataka on Dec 2 — a 66-year-old South African pharma executive who left the country with a fake RT-PCR report on Nov 27. The most recent case is of a 19-year-old traveller in West Bengal which was announced on Monday. These cases were racked up in a span of just 18 days.
In comparison, it took the country 48 days, between Jan 30 and March 18, 2020, to record a comparable 171 cases in the first wave as per the pandemic data. Virologist Dr T Jacob John said the emergence of 172 cases in a span of 18 days is not an insignificant rate. “However, determining a rate of spread from this alone is not correct. For one, we do not know how many unknown infections are happening unreported. A majority of cases are asymptomatic, with probably only less than 10% having symptoms,” Dr John said.
Another well-known virologist Dr Shahid Jameel, Director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, noted that cases are doubling in 1.5 to 3 days worldwide where Omicron is spreading. “To put this in context, this is about twice as fast as Delta in the first four weeks of its spread. In India too in the past 10 days or so, the case doubling rate is 3 days,” he said.
