In view of the sudden spike in the number of Covid cases in the national Capital in the last few days, health experts have not ruled out the possibility of the emergence of new variants of the Omicron which are being sequenced.
Of 2,380 Covid-19 cases that India reported on Wednesday half were from Delhi itself, the highest since February 10, while the positivity rate has jumped to 5.7 per cent against 4.42 per cent on the previous day. In the past few days, Delhi has reported more than 1,000 Covid-19 cases in the national Capital in a single day.
Explaining the surge in Delhi, a senior scientist said Omicron's reproductive number is 10, which has the highest transmissible level, so its derivatives will also have the same transmissibility and will spread in absence of hand hygiene, social distancing and masks. The Delhi Government has already made masks mandatory in a bid to check the spread of the infection.
Experts said that there are eight variants of the Omicron and one among them is dominant, which can be held responsible for the surge in cases.
Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.12 has been detected in a majority of the samples sequenced from Delhi in the first fortnight of April and it could be behind the recent surge in cases in the city, sources said on Thursday.
However, an Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) source has claimed that Omicron variant derivative BA.2.12.1 has also been found in a few samples in Delhi which is said to be contributing to the recent rise in cases in the US.Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) in Delhi told a news agency that there is a possibility of new variants of Omicron in Delhi while adding that the samples at the ILBS lab have been sequenced.
He further said that there are eight variants of Omicron and one among them, one is dominating. "I think by today at our institute ILBS many samples have been sequenced and I think there are eight variants of which one is now dominating, we will come to know slowly," he said.
As per scientists, BA.2.12.1 is the variant, which is a sibling of Omicron, and is also responsible for the case sudden surge in Delhi.
Dr Sarin warned and said that people need to be careful. "I would suggest people should be very careful. There is a fear that children may get infected because they are not adequately vaccinated.
People must wear masks," he added. Since the beginning of April, India has been continuously registering a rise in Covid cases daily. However, on Monday, the country recorded about a 90 per cent jump with 2,183 cases.
The number of active cases has also surged to 2,641, out of which 1,578 patients are being treated in home isolation. With 314 patients recovering in the last 24 hours, the total number of recoveries has gone up to 18,41,890.
The fresh Covid infection has taken the cumulative caseload tally to 18,70,692, while the death toll has risen to 26,161. The Covid fatality rate stands at 1.4 per cent, as per the bulletin.