As a reason, we are observing a softened, mild version of the virus which is highly contagious,” said Dr Hemlata Arora, senior consultant, infectious diseases, Nanavati Hospital. Hence, Omicron is causing a lot of upper respiratory symptoms such as cold and flu but not major lung complications.
International studies from South Africa or the United Kingdom indicate that the virus remains in the upper airways and doesn’t penetrate lung tissue or cause clotting disorders like its earlier variants-Delta or Alpha. “The dominant Covid variant, Omicron, has different disease characteristics as compared to Alpha or Delta variants. It mainly causes mild symptoms which can be treated at home. However, reports across the globe show that hospitalisation rates in Omicron compared with the Delta variant is less, including duration of hospital stay and the need for supplemental oxygen therapy. On December 29, the city reported 2,445 daily Covid-19 cases which surged to 3,555 the next day. This is also being reflected at the 24 hours daily doubling rate in Mumbai. Omicron also has a faster incubation period (gap of time between someone getting exposed to the virus and then showing symptoms) than Delta variants. “Omicron is a more transmissible variant than Delta which was already a more transmissible variant than Alpha, which was the dominant strain when Delta was first reported,” said Dr Lancelot Pinto, epidemiologist and pulmonologist, Hinduja Hospital. On November 26, the World Health Organisation declared it as a variant of concern due to its extreme level of contagiousness and ability to evade people’s immunity procured through the vaccination and past infection with Covid-19.
Scientists have attributed this spike to Omicron. But in the last one month, the active cases in Maharashtra have surged by 141% –18,217 in number – as recorded on December 30. With the flattening of the pandemic curve, the total active Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra dropped to 7,555 on November 29, which was 4,94,032 in May 15. Till December 28, Maharashtra reported 21.33% of India’s total count-the second-highest after Kerala (25.66%).Ī brief overview of the current understanding of the transmission of the Omicron variant. Newsletter | Click to get the day’s best explainers in your inbox To add to the worry, nearly one-third of the samples have been detected with Omicron in Mumbaiin the latest genome sequencing report, which indicated toward a possible community transmission, contributing in the doubling of Covid-19 cases within 24 hours. In the last 26 days, the total number of Omicron cases, which is more transmissible than Delta, the dominant variants during the second wave, and also has a higher potential of immunity escape has surged up to 450 in the state as of December 30. On December 4, Maharashtra detected its first patient with new Covid variant B.1.1.529 or Omicron.
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