KOLKATA: The Omicron variant of SARS-COV-2 virus has in less than a fortnight surpassed the Delta strain in Kolkata’s population with seven out of 10 Covid-19 samples collected in the last week of December and sent for genome sequencing turning out to be this ‘variant of concern’, according to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) in Kalyani.
Fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron, Kolkata on Saturday clocked 7,337 fresh cases, which was 39% of Bengal’s daily Covid count of 18,802,, even as the state’s positivity rate jump-ed to 29% from 26.3% in 24 hours.
On Friday, the city had recorded 7,484 new cases and Bengal 18,213 fresh infections but the the number of tests conducted was around 6,000 more that that of Saturday.
“Like in Delhi and Mumbai, Omicron has outplayed Delta in Kolkata. From detecting the first Omicron case without travel history in the fourth week of December, we have now confirmed 200 Omicron variants in the samples that have undergone genome sequencing at NIBMG. This week, seven out of 10 Covid samples are turning out to be Omicron, a sign that large swathes of the population are now infected with Omicron and it is spreading exponentially. Very soon, Omicron will surpass Delta in not just the metros but across the country,” said NIBMG director Saumitra Das, who is also the national coordinator of Indian SARS-COV-2 Genome Consortium (INSACOG).
Despite the sharp rise in infections, the fatality rate (CFR) in Bengal between December 25 and January 7 has been 0.2%, which experts believe, points to the fact that Omicron is less virulent. A large proportion of deaths recorded in this fortnight has been in the 75-plus age group. While hospital admissions rose by a mere 1,797 in this period, home isolation numbers shot up by 42,138.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/omicron-driving-city-spike-7-of-10-cases-ve-for-variant/articleshow/88783411.cms
