Virus is no longer being spread through foreign tourists, INSACOG
The Omicron infection is no longer being spread through foreign travellers. The Government has finally acknowledged that Covid-19, which is now in the form of a new highly transmissible variant, is in the community transmission stage.
A recently released bulletin of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), the consortium of national laboratories that is tracking the different variants of the Coronavirus, has said that Omicron is now spreading through community transmission. So far there are more than 10,000 reported Omicron cases in the country, spread across 28 States. The actual numbers could be far more (70 to 90 times as per some estimates) because in very few cases genome sequencing is being done to identify Omicron infections.
“Omicron is now in community transmission in India and has become dominant in multiple metros, where new cases have been rising exponentially,” noted INSACOG in its latest bulletin on Sunday.
INSACOG, jointly initiated by the Union Health Ministry and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) among others, is a consortium of 38 laboratories to monitor the genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2
The two-page bulletin of January 10, released on Sunday, added that while most Omicron cases so far had been asymptomatic or mild, hospitalisations and ICU cases had been increasing in the current wave. The threat level remained unchanged.
The recently reported new SARS-CoV-2 variant — B.1.640.2 — lineage was also being monitored, it added. “While it had features of immune escape, it was currently not a variant of concern. So far, no case has been detected in India,’’ said the bulletin.
It further said that BA.2 lineage was a substantial fraction in India and S-gene dropout-based screening was thus likely to give high false negatives. Tests suitable for PCR-based screening applicable to all Omicron lineages had been approved for use. S-gene drop-out was a genetic variation like that of Omicron.
“Further spread of Omicron in India is now expected to be through internal transmission,
