COVID-19: Omicron more infectious but less severe than Delta variant, senior doctor says

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise at an alarming pace in India, health professionals, while raising concerns, have also opined that the severity of the Omicron variant is less than the Delta strain. Speaking on the same, a senior surgeon at Medanta Hospital, Dr Arvind Kumar told ANI that COVID-19 cases are increasing and people are getting infected with the disease but pointed out that the number of hospitalisations is not as serious as it was during the second COVID wave. 

"People are getting serious diseases but the number of ICU admissions, oxygen requirement, and death is not as frantic and as psychologically daunting as it was in the second wave last year till now," he said. Further speaking on the severity of the Omicron variant, Dr Arvind Kumar stated that the recent variant is more infectious in comparison to the Delta variant but is also milder. While the Delta variant had a higher incidence of involving the lungs and causing oxygen problems, Omicron has shown higher vaccine unresponsiveness and vaccine failure. 

Similarly, speaking on the number of hospitalisations, Dr S Kumar, MD, LNJP Hospital, informed about an increase in the number of patients received which has gone from 10-15 to 35-40 per day. "So far we have received 188 Omicron cases from airports in the last five weeks. Omicron is observed in the majority of patients, only 15-20% are diagnosed with Delta variant", he said. 

India battles COVID-19

With a daily spike in COVID-19 cases followed by Omicron infections, India is also spearheading the nationwide vaccination drive, inoculating a massive number of people on a daily basis. In addition, COVID vaccines are also being administered to teenagers between the age of 15-18 followed by precautionary doses for frontline workers, healthcare workers, and senior citizens aged 60 or above. On Thursday, in another achievement in its fight against the deadly virus, India administered over 155 crore COVID-19 vaccines across the country while more than three crore teenagers have received the first dose. 

On the other hand, the country in its highest single-day spike has reported 2,47,417 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. 

(With inputs from ANI, Image: ANI/PTI)