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Omicron

About Omicron

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What is Omicron?

The Omicron variant (B.1.1.529), a new variant of the coronavirus, was first reported in Botswana on November 11, 2021, and appeared on November 14 in South Africa. Omicron has spread to various countries in Europe, including Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the UK, in Australia and Canada, among others.
 
Following the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant 'Omicron', which has led to travel bans and new restrictions in many countries across the world, countries have sprung into action to ensure early detection and precaution. Besides stringent scrutiny at all major airports, several measures are being put in place.

The countries designated as 'at-risk' (as of November 26, 2021) include European countries, the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
 

What WHO says

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the new Covid variant as the 'Variant of Concern' (VOC). It is said that this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of re-infection with this variant, compared to other VOCs.
 

Symptoms of Omicron

The WHO confirmed that there is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants, as understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks.
 
According to WHO, a VOC, with a degree of global public health significance demonstrates one or more mutational changes such as an increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in Covid-19 epidemiology, increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation, and decrease in the effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics.
 
WHO has urged countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing on circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and metadata to a publicly available database, and report initial VOC cases or clusters to the organisation.
 
It has also recommended field investigations and laboratory assessments to better understand the potential impacts of the VOC on Covid-19 epidemiology, the effectiveness of public health and social measures and antibody neutralisation.

Latest Updates on Omicron

As of Sunday, Kerala topped the list of Covid cases with the number of cases crossing more than 12,000

Updated On: 21 Apr 2023 | 5:01 PM IST

A group of scientists in the US has identified an antibody that appears to block infection by all dominant variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, including Omicron

Updated On: 08 Apr 2023 | 7:12 PM IST

Nepal on Monday confirmed the detection of a new Omicron variant of Covid identified as XBB1.16 and said that at least 10 out of 24 latest samples of patients across the country have tested positive

Updated On: 03 Apr 2023 | 9:38 PM IST

India continues to report a spike, but experts are divided on whether the surge is a wave yet or a ripple

Updated On: 30 Mar 2023 | 11:42 PM IST

The high-level meeting, chaired by the PM, came against the backdrop of a spike in influenza as well as Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks

Updated On: 22 Mar 2023 | 10:58 PM IST

The active cases now comprise 0.02 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.79 per cent, the ministry said

Updated On: 22 Mar 2023 | 10:29 AM IST

The active cases now comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.80 per cent, the ministry said

Updated On: 21 Mar 2023 | 1:53 PM IST

The World Health Organisation has rebuked Chinese officials for withholding scientific research that may reveal the origin of coronavirus, The New York Times reported

Updated On: 21 Mar 2023 | 10:58 AM IST

The second most prevalent strain BQ.1.1 only accounted for 3.5 per cent in the latest week

Updated On: 21 Mar 2023 | 9:24 AM IST

This indicated that an individual with the XBB.1.5 variant could infect 1.2 times more people in the population than someone with the parental XBB.1 variant

Updated On: 16 Mar 2023 | 1:32 PM IST

Active cases now comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.80 per cent, according to the health ministry website

Updated On: 16 Mar 2023 | 11:31 AM IST

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is much less likely to lead to long Covid than the variant circulating at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, new research shows

Updated On: 10 Mar 2023 | 2:40 PM IST

The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.80 per cent, the ministry said

Updated On: 10 Mar 2023 | 11:54 AM IST

The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.80 per cent, according to the ministry website

Updated On: 09 Mar 2023 | 10:54 AM IST

India saw a single-day rise of 266 fresh coronavirus cases, The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,54,622 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent

Updated On: 07 Mar 2023 | 12:07 PM IST

The active cases now comprise 0.00 per cent of the total cases, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.80 per cent, according to the health ministry website

Updated On: 04 Mar 2023 | 12:30 PM IST

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,53,668, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent

Updated On: 02 Mar 2023 | 10:51 AM IST

The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.80 per cent, the health ministry said

Updated On: 28 Feb 2023 | 11:26 AM IST

The national COVID-19 recovery was recorded at 98.80 per cent, according to the health ministry website

Updated On: 27 Feb 2023 | 10:04 AM IST

The virus case tally was recorded at 4.46 crore (4,46,86,017), while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.80 per cent, the health ministry said

Updated On: 26 Feb 2023 | 12:35 PM IST