All about Omicron: Recovery time, symptoms and severity

Five days is what most people take to recover from an Omicron infection, and the common symptoms include fever, shivering and cough.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan revealed the above data at a press conference on Thursday, when India recorded more than 3 lakh COVID infections.

“In Delhi, from January 9 to January 19, there have been 75,000-78,000 active cases but the number of those hospitalised is between 2,500 to 2,600,” he said, adding that “in the last surge of Covid-19, on 30 April 2021, there were 3,86,452 new cases, 3,059 deaths, and over 31 lakh active cases reported in India”.

As many as 11 states and Union Territories have more than 50,000 active COVID cases and 515 districts are reporting a weekly case positivity of more than 5 per cent, according to media reports.

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Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Delhi and Rajasthan are among the top ten states in terms of active cases, while Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are among the “states of concern”.

At the conference was Dr Balram Bhargava, DG of Indian Council of Medical Research. He explained why the infection severity was low this time round in India.

“Vaccines have remained beneficial in India. Deaths have considerably reduced due to vaccinations. In this third surge of COVID19, we are currently not witnessing severe illness and deaths due to high vaccination uptake,” the doctor pointed out.

He also informed that 94 per cent of India’s adults had been administered the first dose of the vaccine while in the 15-18 age group, around 52 per cent youngsters had received their first dose.