Omicron variant now in community transmission in India: INSACOG

The INSACOG said in its latest bulletin that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is prevalent in the community transmission stage in India and has become dominant in multiple metros where new cases have been rising exponentially. It said BA. In a large part of the country, the lineage 2 has been found, an infectious sub-variant of Omicron.

In its January 10 bulletin that was released on Sunday, the INSACOG said that most Omicron cases have been asymptomatic or mild, hospitalisations and ICU cases have increased in the current wave and the threat level remains unchanged.

In India, Omicron is now in community transmission and has become dominant in multiple metros where new cases have been rising exponentially. It said that the screening of S gene dropout based screening in India is likely to give high false negatives.

S-gene drop-out is a genetic variation like that of Omicron.

The recently reported B. The 2 lineage is being monitored. There is no evidence of rapid spread and it has features of immune escape, but it is currently not a variant of concern. No case has been detected in India, according to the INSACOG.

In its bulletin of January 3 and released on Sunday, the INSACOG also said that Omicron is now in community transmission in India and has become dominant in Delhi and Mumbai where new cases have been rising exponentially.

The spread of Omicron in India is now expected to be through internal transmission, not foreign travellers, and a revised sampling and sequencing strategy of INSACOG is being worked out to address genomic surveillance objectives because of the dynamic changing scenario of virus infection, according to the INSACOG.

COVID appropriate behaviour and vaccination are the main shields against all form mutations of the SARSCoV-2 virus, it said.

The INSACOG, under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, reports a genome-wide surveillance of SARS CoV-2 across the country through sequencing of samples from sentinel sites and detailed state-wise district analysis for some states.

A total of 1,50, 710 samples have been sequenced and 1, 27,697 samples have been analysed by INSACOG so far.