Nagpur: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria on Sunday said that in view of rising Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom, India should prepare itself for any eventuality.
India has so far reported over 150 cases of the Omicron variant, most of the cases being reported from Maharashtra. “We should prepare and hope that things are not as bad as in the United Kingdom. We need more data on Omicron,” Guleria said. He further added that whenever there is a surge in cases in any part of the world, we need to monitor it closely and be prepared for any kind of eventuality.
The United Kingdom is currently facing a surge in Covid-19 cases. The UK reported 12,133 Omicron cases in the last 24 hours. The total number of Omicron cases in the UK has reached 37,101. The region also reported record high cases on Saturday with over 93,000 cases.
UK Health minister Sajid Javid said there were no guarantees in this pandemic. He added, “At this point we just have to keep everything under review.” Javid said there was still a lot that is not known about the Omicron variant but waiting until data is clearer may leave “it too late to react to it.”
India has reported over 150 cases of Omicron variant till date. There has also been a surge in Covid-19 cases in Karnataka and Delhi. However, experts claim that the patients detected with the newly-discovered variant are mostly asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Till now there has been only one death due to the Omicron variant, in the United Kingdom.
Dr Uday Bodhankar told The Free Media that the transmissibility of the Omicron variant is way more than that of the Delta variant. “Within 25 days the newly-discovered variant has reached more than 6-0 countries so we can imagine how highly transmissible the variant is.”
He added that even the kids are getting infected so it is now important to roll out the vaccination for children. Bodhankar also added, “Few people are still hesitant in taking the vaccine for Covid-19. If this continues, India can never achieve herd immunity and these new variants will always stand as threats ahead of us.”
