India : Is Omicron going to trigger a new wave?
The total count of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant Omicron has reached 781 in India. The variant of concern that was first detected in South Africa in November has now spread to 21 states in the country.
India may see a spurt in the Covid-19 growth rate within days and head into an intense but short-lived virus wave as the highly-infectious Omicron variant moves through the crowded nation of almost 1.4 billion. Paul Kattuman, professor at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge said, “New infections will begin to rise in a few days, possibly within this week.”
The WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update on Covid19 that new variant Omicron has a ‘growth advantage over the Delta variant’ with a doubling time of 2-3 days. The WHO report noted that early data from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Denmark shows that the risk of hospitalization due to Omicron is less than the Delta variant.
Read : Covid19 : Maharashtra records alarming rise in infections
