Omicron at community transmission stage: Govt

Nagpur: According to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), the newly discovered Omicron variant has reached the community transmission level in India.

As per the bulletin published by INSACOG, it stated that Omicron is now in community transmission stage in India and has become dominant in multiple metros where new cases have been rising exponentially. It also said BA.2 lineage, an infectious sub-variant of Omicron, has been found in a substantial fraction in India.

“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 bulletin stated.

Community transmission is considered worrisome by the health officials as it means that the virus is now present in the community but no one knows where it came from or can trace the origin. Experts have also claimed the Omicron has become the dominant strain in multiple metros.

According to the World Health Organisation, the term, community transmission means “evidenced by an inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases, or by an increase in positive tests through sentinel samples (routine systematic testing of respiratory samples from established laboratories).”