Omicron cases doubling in just 1.5-3 days: WHO

Omicron cases doubling in just 1.5-3 days: WHO

‘Surge In Areas With Community Transmission’

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:19.12.2021

The Omicron variant is spreading with a doubling time of 1.5 to 3 days in countries with documented community transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest update about the new strain which is also affecting countries with high levels of population immunity.

“There is consistent evidence that Omicron has a substantial growth advantage over Delta. It is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant with a doubling time of 1.5-3 days,” said WHO’s technical brief. The saving grace so far has been Omicron’s lower virulence even though its spread underlines the need for masks, sanitisation and vaccination.

The UN health agency said it remains uncertain to what extent the rapid growth rate can be attributed to immune evasion, intrinsic increased transmissibility or a combination of both. Preliminary data also suggest there is a reduction in neutralising titres against Omicron in those who have received a primary vaccination series or who have had prior SARSCoV-2 infection, which may suggest a level of humoral immune evasion.

India’s active caseload currently at 84,565 cases

Humoral immunity is the process of adaptive immunity manifested by the production of antibodies that develops in bone marrow.

The number of people infected with the Delta variant in UK were found to be doubling every 11 days, according to a study conducted by the Imperial College of London based on analysis of swab tests taken between May 20 and June 7. “Given current available data, it is likely that Omicron will outpace Delta where community transmission occurs,” the latest WHO update said.

In India, while overall Covid-19 cases continue to be below 10,000 for around 20 days, health authorities have cautioned against complacency highlighting examples of countries like UK and France that are witnessing a surge powered by Omicron despite high vaccination rate and exposure to the Delta variant.

A total of 7,145 new Covid-19 cases were recorded from across the country on Friday. Active caseload currently stands at 84,565 cases. This includes Omicron-infected cases but Delta continues to be the dominant variant so far, according to officials.

While some studies from UK show that the risk of reinfection from Omicron is higher than Delta and there are no signs of the infection being milder than Delta, the UN health agency maintained there are still limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron.