New Delhi India January 25 ANI With India reporting 2,55, 874 new COVID cases 50,190 less than yesterday and 614 deaths in the last 24 hours, health experts cautioned that the country is yet to see the peak in the current wave, as most of the population lives in rural India.
Omicron, the latest Variant of Concern, was first detected in South Africa. It is causing a milder disease, but has 70 times more transmissibility, leading to a high percentage of the percentage rate.
Patients with comorbidities are still required hospital admissions and ICU beds, but hospitalization has been much less in the current variant than in the second wave.
The graph is showing a downward trend and the metropolitans have already seen a peak, said ANI, senior consultant, Internal Medicine, Apollo Hospitals. The tier-II and tier-III cities and villages have reported less cases. India may see a peak in one or two weeks. Omicron has been mild in India so far. People are getting infected at a faster pace and are recovering at a much faster pace. He said that we should not lower our guards at all.
Another expert Dr DS Rana is of the opinion that people are reluctant to take the test because of the milder infection and faster recovery. Many people opt for rapid antigen self-test kits. There were drops in the daily number of cases.
Dr Rana, Chairman, Sir Gangaram Hospital, Delhi told ANI that this happened during delta variant and when cases started decreasing in cities it showed an upward trend in villages. COVID is a respiratory disease and its contagiousness depends on the density of the population. Unlike the time of the Delta wave, many opted to stay back in cities rather than go back to their villages, he said. The rural population will definitely see a rise in cases in the coming weeks due to its transmissibility. It's dependent on how the tests are done, whether it will be recorded or not. Many top health experts emphasised on accelerating genome sequencing for COVID cases.
The current positivity rate remains at 15.52 per cent, with 2,55, 874 new COVID cases recorded in the last 24 hours in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.