Dr Shashank Joshi, member of the state government’s COVID task force, said, “There are a lot of unknowns with the Omron version at the moment. We should not panic, but should be alert. We will have to study whether Omicron replaces the delta variant (which led to the second wave in India) as the dominant variant in circulation over the next few weeks.
He added that the next six to eight weeks are crucial to see how the Omron variant behaves in India, which has seen widespread exposure for the Delta variant.
“Most of the Omicron cases are related to travel. We have to study clusters of cases in countries other than South Africa that may have developed after the first travel-related case. This will help us prepare,” said Dr Joshi.
Another task force member, Dr. Rahul Pandit, said it has to go back to the basics of tracing, testing and treatment. “As we have seen before, it takes a month or two for cases to increase after a new variant is found in circulation,” he said.
BMC Additional Commissioner Suresh Kakani said that there is nothing to panic in Mumbai at the moment. “We have enough medical infrastructure to handle any increase in cases that we can see,” he said.
Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation Commissioner Dr. Vijay Suryavanshi He said that people should compulsorily follow the safety measures of social distancing and wearing of face masks outside the home. “I have asked hotel associations and commercial establishments and unions to follow all safety norms of wearing masks. Our civic teams will start fining those who do not wear masks and shopkeepers and other establishments who will not follow the Covid safety guidelines,” he said.
(Inputs by Pradeep Gupta)
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