AIIMS chief issues warning amid Omicron rise; Modi to review situation

AIIMS Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria said on Wednesday (December 22) that vaccine and COVID-appropriate behaviour are the only two ways to counter the spread of Omicron, the new coronavirus variant.

A few hours after Dr Guleria’s warning, news agency ANI tweeted, citing government sources, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will review the pandemic-related situation in the country on Thursday.

“Omicron is a more transmissible variant. We need to do two things to protect ourselves: First one is to take vaccines, and the second is to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour,” Dr Guleria said.

Earlier, Dr Guleria had said that existing vaccines could be tweaked for protection against the new variant.

“We will have second-generation vaccines. This is something which we need to keep in mind. The current vaccines are effective but with new variants, they will decrease immunity. However, vaccines can be tweaked… There are also studies going on about if we can have a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine. Let’s say the Delta variant and Beta variant combined into one vaccine that makes a bivalent vaccine.”

As of Wednesday, India has reported 213 Omicron cases. The first case was detected on December 2.

Most of the cases originated from abroad, meaning either the patients have been to foreign countries or they have come into contact with someone who has been to a foreign country. 

All cases have been mild with no major symptoms reported.

In a letter to the states and Union Territories on Tuesday, the Centre said: “Based on current scientific evidence, the VOC Omicron is at least three times more transmissible than the Delta VOC. Besides, the Delta VOC is still present in different parts of the country. Hence, even greater foresight, data analysis, dynamic decision making and strict and prompt containment action is required at the local and district level. The decision making at the State/UTs and district level must be very prompt and focused.”