The new COVID variant, Omicron, is less likely to be as lethal in India as the Delta variant, says an epidemiologist. The Delta variant was primarily responsible for the second wave in India which led to thousands of deaths and crippled the medical infrastructure.

Ramanan Laxminarayan, founder-director, Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, Washington, told Bloomberg TV that thanks to the reasonably high vaccination rate in the country, along with the wide exposure to the COVID virus, Indians are less likely to be gravely affected by the new Omicron variant. However, Ramanan stated that the condition might change if the novel variant can get past all immune defences in the body.

“As Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa last month, appears to cause mild infections, the damage in terms of hospitalisation and stress on the health system will be less than what we have seen in the second wave,” Ramanan told Bloomberg.

He believed that the advent of a possible wave triggered by the Omicron variant might bolster the vaccination drive in the country. It will motivate the reluctant and resistant population to get the jab and will drive others to get the second dose of the vaccine.

Omicron is rapidly spreading in South Africa, which reported the first case of the COVID variant on November 24. On November 26, 2,402 cases were reported, which proliferated to 8,561 by December 1.

In India, two cases were reported in Karnataka. Though studies suggest that the new variant might cause mild symptoms, India is keeping Omicron under acute scrutiny after witnessing the horrid situation during the second wave in early May. It was supposedly the world’s fastest-spreading COVID outbreak, with new infections peaking at 4,00,000 per day. The health sector was overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, researchers are carefully testing samples and carrying out genome sequencing to ascertain the prevalence of the Omicron variant in the new cases being detected in the country. After seeing the sudden surge in cases of reinfection, the World Health Organisation declared that the new variant was being put in the “variant of concern” category.

(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)