India has reported over 100 cases of the COVID variant Omicron in 11 States, with Maharashtra registering the highest of 40 cases, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agrawal on Friday, adding that there is “no evidence to suggest that vaccines are not effective against Omicron”.
Maharashtra ay reported eight new Omicron variant cases, taking the state tally to 40. All eight patients have been fully vaccinated. Of these, seven are asymptomatic and one has mild symptoms. Six patients are from Pune, and one each from Mumbai and Kalyan Dombivli.
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India is now administering vaccines at the highest rate in the world and that the daily rate of doses administered is 4.8 times the rate in the U.S. and 12.5 times the rate in the UK, Mr. Agrawal said at a press conference.
Faster spread
Stating that the Omicron variant is now reported in 91 countries in the world, Mr. Agarwal said: “The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that Omicron is spreading faster than the Delta variant in South Africa where Delta circulation is low. It's likely Omicron will outpace the Delta variant where community transmission occurs.”
He added that WHO has noted that the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high for several reasons including risk of potential immune escape against infection and high transmission rates, which could lead to further surges.
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He added that as per the WHO, Omicron is spreading at a rate not seen with any previous variant. “WHO is concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild and has said that the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems,” he said.
Vaccine priority
Mr. Agrawal added that India’s priority is to provide two dose vaccine coverage to the maximum number of people as soon as possible.
As per data released by the Health Ministry on Friday the new daily COVID cases reported in the country has been below 10,000 for the past 20 days. The case positivity for the last 1 week was 0.65%. Currently, Kerala contributes 40.31% to the total number of active cases in the country.
Speaking at the presser on the Omicron threat, Dr. V.K. Paul, Member-Health, NITI Aayog said a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is being experienced in Europe with a steep rise in cases.
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“This is the time to avoid non-essential travel, mass gatherings and it is very important to observe low-intensity festivities,” cautioned Dr. Balaram Bhargava, DG Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Responding to questions on mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) being more effective and on anti-viral COVID19 pills, he said that mRNA vaccines have shown higher response and swifter fall while others have indicated a more sustained response.
“The anti-viral COVID pills are under discussion and it has been found that these pills need to be given very early, even before the diagnosis of the disease. Scientific data is still not supported in a big way that the pills will be useful at the moment,” Dr. Bhargava said.
Speaking about how genome sequencing of every sample is not possible, Dr. Paul said that genome sequencing is a surveillance and pandemic assessment and tracking tool, not a diagnostic tool as of now. “We can assure sufficient systematic sampling is being undertaken,” he said.
