New Delhi: The Omicron variants currently circling in Delhi are more contagious than the base variants that emerged in January this year. Also, the vaccine efficiency has declined to 20 to 30 per cent, NDTV reported citing Dr NK Arora, Chairman of the Centre's Covid Task Force.
The national capital is experiencing a spike in fresh Covid-19 cases, and the positivity rate is around 18 per cent.
Arora told NDTV in an interview that the 18 per cent positivity rate is frightening, but what needs more attention at the moment are hospital admission rates and related mortality. The whole country should monitor both, he said.
NDTV quotes him, "This is largely the case worldwide also with the emergence of Omicron... Omicron has not been so virulent, and in India, we know the hospitalisation rate is very low. The positivity rate keeps on varying due to the number of tests."
He said that if one person in a family tests positive and others have the same symptoms, no more tests are done in the family. Bringing back the Covid-19 safety measures, including the face masks, is important, he said.
Further, he said that the strains that are currently there in Delhi- sub-lineages of Omicron B5 and B2- are more infectious than the Omicron base variant.
When asked if the disease has become endemic to India and whether the situation will continue for another five years, Arora replied that there had been no sub-lineage found in the past six months that is particularly virulent.
"If this is the situation for the next two or three months, then as a public health person, I'll be more comfortable, and I can kind of say let's open up to normalcy," NDTV quoted him.