Even at the peak of the second wave in India last year, when no contact tracing was done or possible, not a word was said about community transmission of the delta variant – where the source of infection was not traced can go. But with highly permeable omicrons becoming prominent in major cities, INSACOG, the consortium to monitor genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has officially noted for the first time that India has entered community transmission; The daily fresh cases have exceeded 0.3 million since January 19. Even on June 15 last year, when the second wave peaked here, India claimed to have only a ‘cluster of cases’, as reflected in the WHO’s final epidemiological report (weekly). Stage of transmission in member-states. In contrast, the US declared community transmission in February 2020, when in one instance the source of infection could not be traced; Then only 15 cases were detected. The closest India came to accepting community transmission came in October 2020, when the then Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said it was limited to “a few districts in a limited number of states”. The deep reluctance to acknowledge community transmission was on the grounds that it marked the government’s inability to control the spread of the virus and the failure of a stringent national lockdown. As the government tried in vain to obscure the stage of transmission, it only reflected its resistance to accept reality and its reluctance to be transparent.
The weekly bulletin of INSACOG also mentions that the BA.2 sub-lineage of Omicron accounts for a substantial fraction of cases detected in India. This sub-lineage was detected a month after the WHO designated Omicron as a variant of concern on November 26, 2021. Although the Omicron variant causes intrinsically low disease severity and most of those who are fully vaccinated have only mild disease, the number of people hospitalized and requiring intensive care has increased in the third wave in India. has been As the WHO recently warned, people infected with Omicron can display “the full spectrum of disease” – from asymptomatic infection to severe illness and death. This is especially true in older people, those with comorbidities, and those who have not been fully vaccinated. Although more than 67% of adults have been fully vaccinated, and about 8.2 million booster doses were given as of January 23, about 5.5% of health care workers, 6.8% of frontline workers, and 16.2% of those over the age of 60 were given Is not found. His second dose. Thorough vaccination of these vulnerable groups should be a high priority. Meanwhile, the need for strict adherence to COVID-appropriate behavior cannot be overemphasized.
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