As the world faces the new corona variant Omicron, India’s health ministry advises states should scale up COVID-19 testing, while several cities have delayed school reopenings as a preventive measure.
On Tuesday, the ministry also stated that the Omicron variety “doesn’t escape RT-PCR and RAT (testing),” expressing concerns among domestic health workers that alterations in the virus’s spike protein could cause traditional tests to miss the mutation.
It comes after the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare warned state governments last week that a recent drop in testing could jeopardise India’s efforts to limit the pandemic.
While no Omicron cases have been reported in India, authorities are looking into a sample from a guy who recently returned from South Africa and tested positive for COVID-19 to see if he is infected with the Omicron or another variety.
Mumbai’s municipal administration also announced on Tuesday that it will postpone the reopening of schools for younger children from Wednesday to December 15 as a precautionary step due to the global scenario regarding Omicron.
Senior students began attending in-person classes in the city around two months ago.
Local media stated that the city of Pune, which is also in the western state of Maharashtra, had postponed the reopening of schools.
India has seen a significant drop in cases after seeing a record high in infections and deaths in April and May.
On Wednesday, the number of COVID-19 cases increased by 8,954. On Tuesday, it was 6,990, the smallest gain in 551 days.
India has over 35 million coronavirus infections, with only the United States reporting more. According to health ministry data, deaths increased by 267 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 469,247.
However, the discovery of the Omicron version of the coronavirus has raised worries about India’s immunisation campaign.
“I wouldn’t say that we are really prepared because our vaccination drive is stumbling and that is going to be a major challenge,” health economist Rijo M John told a news channel.
“I am worried about people above 45 years of age. Only 58 percent of the population above 45 has been given two doses of the vaccine,” he said.
“If the Omicron variant turns out to be more problematic or leads to more serious diseases, then this is the population that needs to be highly worried.”
Meanwhile, after the CEO of drugmaker Moderna warned that existing vaccinations would be less effective, India’s Bharat Biotech said on Tuesday that it was investigating whether its Covaxin injection might work against forms of coronavirus such as Omicron.
“Covaxin was created against the original Wuhan version,” a Bharat Biotech spokesman said in a text message to Reporters, referring to the Chinese city where the virus initially appeared.
“It has shown that it can work against other variants, including the Delta variant. We continue to research on new variants.”
