70% Omicron cases asymptomatic: Govt
NEW DELHI: : A government analysis of 183 of the 358 known Omicron variant Covid-19 cases in India found that 70% of the infected are asymptomatic and the rest have mild symptoms, health ministry officials said on Friday.
A little over 90% of the cases for whom vaccination status was known had taken a full course of their shots, and 61% of the cases were in men, the analysis showed. Taken together, the trends fit findings in other countries – some of which the Union health ministry cited – of the variant causing a significant number of breakthrough infections after vaccination, but mostly manifesting in a mild or asymptomatic manner.
“Regarding infection with Omicron, it does not necessarily lead to severe symptomatic clinical disease. In India, about a third of all detected cases were mildly symptomatic and the rest were asymptomatic; therefore, the treatment for Omicron-infected symptomatic individuals remains the same. It does not change from that for Delta or Alpha or even Beta,” said Balram Bhargava, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
“The predominant strain in India is Delta; including in recently identified clusters. Therefore, we need to continue with the same strategy of Covidappropriate behaviour and ramping up the vaccination,” Bhargava added.
The 358 positive Omicron cases have been reported from 17 States and Union Territories so far, according to the health ministry data. Of this number, 114 have recovered.
To be sure, the large share of vaccinated people among confirmed Omicron infections is because of a testing bias -- testing, even of asymptomatic cases and genome sequencing is targeted at international travellers, most of whom are vaccinated since countries generally seek proof of vaccination or impose strict quarantine rules on foreign arrivals.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, who opened the briefing, said that of the 183 Omicron positive cases ana
lysed, 121 had a foreign travel history and 44, with no travel history, were close contacts.
“Gender wise, 39% of these analysed omicron positive cases were women and 61% were men,” said Bhushan.
“Seven people were unvaccinated, and two were partially vaccinated. Sixteen people were ineligible for vaccination. Vaccination status of 73 persons is unknown,” he added.
The Union government has not identified any community transmission case of Omicron variant infection yet, although the government has begun efforts to send more random samples for genome sequencing, which determines the variant.
Globally, 108 countries have reported 151,368 Omicron cases and there have been 26 deaths, the data released by Bhushan said. India has not reported any deaths in this category yet.
Experts said while India needs to worry because even a small percentage of infections could mean large numbers getting infected, there are tools that can be relied on to fight the variant.
“We have tools that we did not have earlier such as drugs and vaccines that can be quickly updated if needed,” said Gagandeep Kang, one of the country’s top vaccine experts and senior faculty, Christian Medical College, Vellore.
At the briefing, Bhushan elaborated on the pre-emptive preparations that have been made. “Based on experience of the first and second Covid surge that the country saw, there are more than 1.8 million (1,810,083) isolation beds ready as of now; almost 500,000 oxygen supported beds; nearly 140,000 ICU beds; 24,057 paediatric ICU beds; and 64,796 non-ICU paediatric beds. Apart from this, with the help of emergency Covid response package-II that has a sum of ₹23,123 crore, states are preparing 96,913 additional oxygen supported beds, 20,475 ICU beds, and 9,574 paediatric ICU beds,” said Bhushan.
The official added that one of the specific focus areas of preparations was supply of medical oxygen in hospitals to treat critically ill patients that government is focusing on. “Medical oxygen supply is another important issue even though in the global experience so far, and South Africa in particular, Omicron positive cases have not required additional medical oxygen support. However, we need to be vigilant, and proactive; therefore, we have made appropriate arrangements,” said Bhushan.
“During the first Covid wave, total medical oxygen requirement in a day shot up to 1,000 metric tonne; in the second wave it rose to 10,000 metric tonne, which was a ten-fold increase in demand. And because of the collective efforts of the Union government and the state governments, we were able to address that. Today, we have created a capacity of 18,800 metric tonne of medical oxygen per day,” he added.
Bhushan also said the country is recording a steady increase in vaccination numbers, another crucial tool in the fight against Covid-19. So far, 89% of the adult population has received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 61% is fully vaccinated.
But, there are still at least 11 states that have vaccinated fewer number of beneficiaries than the national average, for both first and the second dose.
“It is a significant achievement that 89% of the adult population has received at least one vaccine dose; and 61% is fully protected — they have received both the doses. Nineteen states have first dose coverage of at least 90% of their eligible population, which is more than the national average. However, the cause for concern for us are the 11 states and Union territories where the first and second dose coverage is less than the national average. We have engaged with these states on a continuous basis; and last such review was yesterday (Thursday) wherein it was discussed how to increase the coverage,” said the health secretary.
On introducing booster dose, and starting vaccination in children, the health ministry reiterated its stand that it will go by the opinion of technical experts based on scientific evidence.
“In Parliament, and outside of it, government of India has clearly articulated the position that we would be governed by science and scientific evidence on deciding on the need and timing for an additional dose and for lowering the age of vaccination. Our stand remains the same,” said Bhushan, while adding that a booster was not a silver bullet for the pandemic.
“We are reviewing all scientific data from across the world as well as from India, which includes T-cell response, antibody response with a particular vaccine, with another vaccine, and how long it persists, and how long it persists after infection. Taking all those into consideration, we are deliberating and we shall be formulating our policy,” said Bhargava, who is one of the experts on the technical committee.