Omicron is now the dominant variant behind COVID-19 cases in India, the government said in a press conference on Thursday.

There is early indication of a plateau in the reported COVID infections in the country and a decrease in the number of deaths reported. Further, just the top 10 states in India are contributing to 77% of the total cases, the centre informed, as reported by NDTV.

From December 2021 to January 2022, cases of the omicron variant detected in genome sequencing had jumped from almost 1,292 to 9,672.

Also Read: Omicron subvariant BA.2 more contagious, not severe: Denmark

“Active case numbers and corresponding deaths are much lower in this wave,” the government said, adding that the country’s vaccination programme was behind the fall in the death toll. 

Over 90% of cases are in home isolation with mild to moderate severity and only a few need oxygen and ICU beds, it said. 

Experts added that the delta variant of coronavirus is also still prevalent in the country along with omicron, especially in West Bengal, Odisha and Maharashtra. “Clinical severity and hospitalisation can be caused by Delta as well,” Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control shared.

Also read | ‘Stealth omicron’ & COVID: Has the BA.2 sublineage been reported in India?

He also said that people with comorbidities as well as those who were not vaccinated comprise nearly 64% of the total COVID deaths in Delhi.

The BA.2 sublineage of the Omicron coronavirus is more prevalent in India now, Dr Kumar cautioned. BA.2 been dubbed the ‘stealth omicron’ by some scientists, with rising fears surrounding its seemingly faster growth. It is detected differently on PCR tests than the BA.1 variant. While the type of infection is usually detected via genetic analysis, the BA.1 variant was relatively easier to detect.  

In a bulletin from January 10, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) had said, “Omicron is now in community transmission in India and has become dominant in multiple metros, where new cases have been rising exponentially. BA.2 lineage is in a substantial fraction in India and S gene dropout based screening is thus likely to give high false negatives,” the January 10 bulletin read.

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“It is possible that BA.2 is causing the local cluster infection. Even as this sub-lineage is different from its siblings, genetically it belongs to the same family and hence there is no significant difference in the clinical course of the disease,” immunologist Dipyaman Ganguly from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology had told TOI.

BA.2 seems to be more contagious than the original variant, but not may not be as severe, Denmark’s Health Minister said in a national address on Wednesday. The subvariant is now dominant in Denmark.