The new coronavirus variant Omicron, first detected in South Africa and Botswana, has now been identified in at least 95 nations, including Britain, the United States of America, Denmark and Norway.
As far as India is concerned, it has recorded more than 200 cases of the new variant across 12 states, mostly in Maharashtra and the nation’s capital New Delhi. The total tally of Omicron cases has swiftly doubled in just two weeks, which is extremely alarming.
In light of such rapid increase in the COVID-19 cases, Dr Trupti Gilada, Infectious disease specialist, Masina Hospital, Mumbai, believes that a third wave due to Omicron could be a possibility.
“The doubling time of cases with the omicron variant is around 3 days. The omicron numbers being reported from India is only a fraction of the real number that already exists. With the Omicron variant known to be at least three times more infectious than Delta, the third wave due to Omicron is almost inevitable,” she says.
Recently, the National COVID-19 Supermodel Committee predicted that the third wave of coronavirus is expected to hit India in February. Vidyasagar, the head of the committee, suggested that the daily coronavirus caseload in India, which is currently around 7,500 infections, could increase once the Omicron variant supersedes Delta as the dominant variant. He also suggested that the third wave could be milder than the second wave due to a large-scale immunity present in the country.
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