Omicron variant being detected in majority of Covid patients, says Delhi doctor

“The number of hospitalisations has increased from 10-15 to 35-40 per day. So far, we have received 188 Omicron cases from airports in the last five weeks,” news agency ANI quoted LNJP’s Dr S Kumar as saying. 

“Omicron is observed in the majority of patients. Only 15-20% are diagnosed with delta variant,” added Kumar. 

His statement came a day after the LNJP came out with a study on the Omicron variant which shows that the virus is mutating but the disease severity is mild.

In the research, it was discovered that 35 mutations included three non-significant mutations in the spike protein.

“This is one of the best research in Omicron done by gene sequencing lab. LNJP has done a study on Omicron and submitted data of 13 patients. We have compared the original virus from Wuhan, China,” said Kumar. 

“We found 35 mutations which include three non-significant mutations in the spike protein in this variant, as compared to 31-32 mutations in the South African variant. We did gene sequencing and correlated with clinical findings and we found that these patients were either asymptomatic or mild in nature,” he added. 

On the other hand, senior Surgeon of Medanta Hospital Dr Arvind Kumar said that data shows the Omicron variant is more infectious than the Delta variant. However, it is milder as compared to it.

“Delta variant had a higher incidence of involving the lungs and causing oxygen problems. Until now, the data shows that Omicron is more infectious than Delta but also milder as compared to it. Omicron shows higher vaccine unresponsiveness and vaccine failure,” he said. 

“The number of Covid-19 cases is increasing and people are getting serious diseases but the number of ICU admissions, oxygen requirements and death is not as frantic and as psychologically daunting as it was in the second wave in the last year, till now,” he added.

Meanwhile, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said that Covid-19 cases in the national capital continue to be above 20,000 but the positivity rate is stable around 25%, which is a good sign.

He further informed that the hospital admission rate has not risen in the past four-five days and if it holds then there will be some relief in restrictions.