Omicron infections may not warrant shutdowns: Officials

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01.01.2022

However, many cases being detected in India were due to contact tracing or testing due to travel plans, underlining that the infections are often asymptomatic. While Omicron is certainly more potent than flus, it is being assessed if it will be the first steptowards a milder form of the virus. Official sources said infections may not warrant shutdowns that derail a nascent economic recovery. It is being evaluated if the pandemic is moving towards endemicity — becoming a common, but milder ailment. In South Africa, Omicron cases began to rise around mid-November and c

ame down in a month.

Studies of the Omicron variant’s action on human cells show it faces effective “blocks” due to immune response, warding off serious disease. Though Omicron has a high number of spikeprotein mutations, they are clustered in three key functional areas of the virus. What Omicron gains in higher “escape” ability, it loses in terms of binding action on protein receptors as compared to Delta. And so while antibody strength is reduced, the Omicron spike is less potent, studies say.

“We see that the expected binding to the FCD (Furin cleavage domain) is at best the samea s the a lpha variant, and significantlyless than the Delta variant,” says a recent paper on simulation studies on Omicron in biology pre-print publicationBioRxiv.

A health ministry study of  countries with a high  number of cases shows daily deaths are higher in countries with lower vaccine coverage or where the vaccination drive has stalled. The US is recording an average of 1,777 daily deaths and a CFR of 1. 54 and its vaccine coverage is 61% of the population. The figures for France with 80% vaccine coverage are better, with 184 daily deaths and 1. 29 CFR, even as it records 2 lakh cases a day. Though India’s two-dose coverage, interms of p opulation, is 42%, its double-dose coverage of eligible adults is 65%, and single shot is 9 0%.

Nos. rise but govt cautiously optimistic on Omicron effect  Rapidly But Seen As Weaker

New Delhi: The swift rise and subsidence of the Omicron wave in South Africa and lower mortality due to the variant in countries with higher vaccine coverage, along with trends in India, have led to cautious optimism that it could herald progressively weaker strains of the Covid, preventing serious disruption of the economy.

Official sources said that while preparations to tend to patients needing hospital care — due to a cumulatively higher number of cases — were on, evidence from domestic and global studies pointed to India’s expanding vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity delivering a high level of pro- tection against serious illness.

The presence of Omicron in genome-sequenced samples in India has crossed 50%, indicating that the variant is rapidly replacing Delta as the domi- nant strain. Around 80% of Covid cases among international arrivals are of Omicron, pointing to its wide footprint.