So far omicron cases are mild, recovery rate is high still need to be cautious: Health expert

New Delhi: With over 200 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in India, the health experts treating the patients infected with the virus say that so far cases are mild and the recovery rate is high but it is high time to be cautious otherwise India will be in trouble.

The country has reported 213 cases of Omicron so far, with two states– Maharashtra and Delhi– and topping the number of cases.

While speaking to ANI, Dr Vivek Nangia, Principal Director and Head of Pulmonology, Max Hospital, Saket Complex said, “As of now we have got patients who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and no significant symptoms or complications have developed so far. Patients admitted do not even require oxygen or any other IV medication.”

He said that most omicron patients have recorded travel history either from at-risk countries or other countries. As per the government norms for omicron patients, an institutional quarantine of these patients has to be followed due to its high transmissibility rate.

“All the patients admitted here have been asked to get institutional quarantine by the govt. These are the travellers who were returning from other countries like the UK and were tested positive at the airport and asked for an institutional quarantine. So far they all got very mild to no symptoms at all,” said Dr Nangia.

He further said that the mild symptoms of omicron are fever, body ache, sore throat, cough and cold which is similar to the delta variant that India had which became the dominant strain worldwide.

The health expert also believes that with the festive season coming in, the numbers are going to increase.

“The way things are going we are already seeing a surge in a number of cases. Initially, we saw 20 to 30 cases being reported now we are seeing cases in hundreds. The number of cases will keep increasing, especially due to the upcoming festive season. Moreover, with people moving around, I am sure we are in trouble,” he added.

“It’s high time we all should be cautious and follow all the COVID protocol behaviour otherwise we will be in trouble again similar to the beginning of this year,” said Dr Nangia.

Despite high vaccination rate and exposure to Delta variant, internationally the high transmissibility rate of omicron has been reported with surges going up to 80,000 cases in a single day in the UK. Other countries with high omicron cases are South Africa, Norway, Canada.

With the surge in cases each day, the Centre has urged people to take double doses of vaccines, avoid mass gatherings and non-essential travel along with emphasising on COVID protocol behaviours.

India reported 6,317 new COVID-19 cases and 318 deaths in 24 hours. India’s current active caseload, at 78,190 is the lowest in 575 days. In the omicron segment among 213 cases, 90 patients recovered.

The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25.

WHO has classified Omicron as a variant of concern.

India reported the first case of Omicron on December 2.