Omicron is sure to become the predominant COVID strain across the country soon as it has been spreading rapidly and although it is causing “mild” symptoms in infected individuals, it is capable of circumventing the protection offered by vaccines, said scientists of Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) on Wednesday.
The latest strain, first noticed in Africa, has been behaving like a typical pandemic-causing pathogen in being more infectious, yet with “mild” symptoms of cold, fever, headache, sore throat, etc. This could, however, prove dangerous for the immuno-compressed and the elderly, and so it cannot be taken lightly, they asserted in an online interaction.
Evidence from South Africa and England is showing that the current vaccines do protect from severe disease and mortality, if not from the infection itself, as the hospitalisation rate is considerably low in comparison to the scenario during the Delta-induced second wave last year, they said.
The premier scientific institute has been closely following the quick spread of the variant in a small duration of time, including through genome sequencing. Scientists have said that Omicron was reported in November last year and within a month, there was an uptick in the country’s caseload. The variant is slated to quickly overtake Delta, given the increased local transmission.
“Every week we have been looking at this lineage and it has now become the predominant variant. We are also monitoring the three sub-lineages to check their progress. We have designed primers to detect Omicron and made it into RT-PCR kits. We have tested samples and they have been showing good accuracy,” said scientist Divya Tej Sowpati.
His colleague Karthick Bharadwaj explained that Omicron had developed significant immune escape properties and was infectious as can be seen in highly vaccinated countries like the UK where the cases have shown a steep rise. However, the mortality rate is low.
Testing and isolation
A N-95 mask, open spaces, good ventilation and vaccination reduce the risk of infection. A regular RT-PCR test does detect the infection, even if it may not be able to identify Omicron as the variant, and it was not necessary to go for repeat ‘negative’ test, he said, adding that nine days of isolation should be sufficient.
CCMB director Vinay Kumar Nandicoori said booster doses provide “some level of protection if not total” but ruled out the possibility of the pandemic ending any time soon as another variant of concern could well emerge.
“It is anybody’s guess; science is evolving and our mitigation methods are getting better,” he said.
He pointed out that India, with 5 lakh fatalities, ranks second in the number of reported deaths after the United States (8.5 lakh). Over 55 lakh deaths have been reported worldwide.
The Spanish Flu, which raged on for two years a century ago, and had three waves, claimed four crore lives which meant that the current mitigation efforts have been effective in terms of diagnosis or vaccines.
