Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, on Friday, December 24, released an analysis of 183 cases of the new Omicron variant of COVID detected in India.
The Analysis
As many as 96 Omicron cases (of the total 183) whose COVID vaccination status is known, 87 (nine of 10 or 91 percent) were fully vaccinated; three of whom had received booster shots too. Two were partially vaccinated and seven unvaccinated.
The vaccination status of 73 persons was not known and 16 were not eligible for vaccination. While the travel history of 18 Omicron cases is not known, an analysis of the remaining 165 shows that 121 or 73 percent had a history of travel abroad. Significantly, 27 percent of these 165 cases, did not have a foreign travel history, indicating the presence of Omicron in the community.
What does it mean?
The results, government health authorities said, only went to highlight that “vaccine alone is not sufficient to contain this pandemic” and that use of masks and surveillance is key to breaking the chain of transmission.
The analysis, in terms of clinical signs, also shows that 70 percent of patients are asymptomatic, said ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava. “The infection with Omicron does not necessarily lead to severe symptomatic clinical disease. In India, about a third of all detected cases were mildly symptomatic, and the rest were asymptomatic. Therefore, I want to emphasize that treatment of Omicron in symptomatic individuals remains the same,” he said.
