The Omicron version has set off alarm bells around the world and in India, the administration has opted to shut down as cases rise after the emergence of the Covid mutant, which is said to be even more contagious than the delta version. However, experts around the world have reiterated the usually mild nature of the disease caused by the variant.
The delta variant, which surfaced earlier this year, was dubbed the deadliest version of Covid-19 yet, and caused a devastating wave of the disease in India in April and May. It has also kept cases in Europe and the Americas up throughout the winter months, and has raised authorities’ concern as Omicron, with its increased transmissibility, was reported from South Africa.
But the version cases, which have reached around 1,000 in India too, are reportedly much milder. Some experts say that if the variant replaces Delta as the dominant COVID-19 variant worldwide, the lethality of the disease could be reduced. However, others caution that amid the increased success cases that Omicron is proving to do, health care systems may eventually face a burden, even if there is a slight delay.
US officials say Omicron is low due to Covid deaths, hospitalizations
The number of COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations is “comparatively low” as the highly contagious Omicron version of the coronavirus spreads, Rochelle Valensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Wednesday. . In just a few weeks, Omicron has grown rapidly across the country, and we expect it to continue to spread in the coming weeks. While cases have increased significantly since last week, hospitalizations and deaths are comparatively less now,” she said, referring to the overall number of cases.
He said the current seven-day daily average is around 240,400 per day, up 60% from the previous week. Valensky told reporters at a White House briefing that the average daily hospitalization rate for the same period is 14% to about 9,000 per day and deaths are down about 7% per day. The average number of daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States reached a record high on Wednesday.
Hospitalization ratio lower than Delta: Anthony Fauci
Early US data suggests Omicron will have a lower hospitalization ratio than the Delta version, top US infectious disease infectious disease Anthony Fauci said at the briefing, but COVID-19 vaccine boosters will be key in tackling this. “All indications point to the lesser severity of Omicron versus Delta,” he said. “Boosters are critical to optimizing our approach to Omicron.”
India will start giving ‘precautionary’ or booster doses to its vulnerable population from next year, following suit by several developed countries.
Although alarm bells are not silent, say experts
bloomberg Albert Ko, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health, is quoted as saying that because the new variant spreads so easily, the US will “see a continued increase in hospitalizations and deaths, albeit as severe.” Not there. Delta wave that hit mid-year’.
“We are seeing a rapid increase in cases, and a very small increase in hospitalizations and deaths. But we still have 65,000 people currently hospitalized due to Covid, and we are already doing 1,500 deaths a day,” Ko told bloomberg in an interview.
Population immunity behind low hospitalization?
A South African study suggests that the risk of hospitalization and serious illness is reduced in people infected with the Delta One versus Omicron coronavirus disease, although the authors say some of that is likely due to higher population immunity. Is. The new study, which has not been peer-reviewed, sought to assess disease severity by comparing data on Omicron infections in October and November with data from Delta infections between April and November, across South Africa.
The analysis was carried out by a group of scientists from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and leading universities including the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The authors found that the risk of hospital admission was about 80% lower for people infected with Omicron than Delta, and the risk of serious illness in the hospital was about 30% lower.
However, he included several caveats and cautioned against jumping to conclusions about Omicron’s intrinsic features.
“It is difficult to pin down the relative contribution of higher levels of intrinsic low virulence versus past population immunity relative to lower disease severity,” they wrote.
O’Micron Could Replace Delta, But Is It Good News?
Experts in Singapore, where 170 new omicron cases were reported on Wednesday, have warned that delta is likely to be replaced by a newer, more infectious variant in the coming weeks to months. While the delta is still the most common type in all continents except Africa, omicron is spreading very rapidly, said Dr Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, executive director of the Bioinformatics Institute at the state-owned Agency for Science, Technology and Research here.
However, Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, cautions against becoming complacent amid reports of the variant being mild.
“In terms of getting infections, world data shows that people with vaccinations and previous infections are at significant risk of getting COVID again without a booster. Many people in India have had both vaccination and covid, this may be helpful but we don’t have the data yet. Many people fall ill in a short period of time, even if a small fraction needs medical care, the burden will put pressure on the system. This will affect the care of other diseases. We know that disruption of care leads to mortality,” she told a source on Twitter.
What do experts say about India?
While various Indian states, including Delhi and Maharashtra, have introduced lockdown measures amid rising cases, experts have reiterated that the third wave of Covid-19 in India, prompted by Omicron, may not be as severe as the second due to several factors. can.
This includes reduction in severity of disease caused by the variant, higher risk of covid and increased vaccination coverage.
Dr Shashank Joshi of Maharashtra COVID Task Force told CNBC-TV18 in an interview that the third wave had already started in Mumbai, and the severe COVID-19 cases were due to Delta and not the Omicron variant. He said that very few hospitalizations are being seen and most people are being treated at home. “The illness appears to be mild at this time. We advise people not to gather, avoid events like weddings.”
India will see an increase in omicron-driven COVID cases and a high positivity rate, but infections will be mild in most people, as seen in South Africa, Dr Angelique Coetzee, who identified the first variant, said earlier. Said in a report. The president of the South African Medical Association also said that current vaccines would certainly control the contagion, but that people who have not been vaccinated are at 100 percent “risk”.
With inputs from Reuters, PTI.
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