Vice President Venkaiah Naidu tests positive for Covid-19

“The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, who is in Hyderabad, tested COVID positive today. He has decided to remain in self-isolation for a week,” read a tweet from the handle of the Vice President of India.

“He has advised all those who came in contact with him and advised them to self isolate and get tested,” he said.

Meanwhile, as per reports, the Omron variant is in the community transmission stage in India and has become effective in many metros as well, where new cases are increasing rapidly.

“Omicron is now in the community transmission stage in India and has become dominant in many metropolitan cities, where new cases are increasing rapidly. Ba.2 lineage is in a significant fraction in India and S gene dropout based screening thus gives high false positives. is likely to be negative,” the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said in its weekly bulletin today.

According to the report RT-PCR Screening Applicable to All Omicron Lineages, “Tests suitable for PCR-based screening applicable to all Omicron lineages have been approved for use.”

“While so far most omicron cases have been asymptomatic or mild, hospitalizations and ICU cases are increasing in the current wave. The danger level remains unchanged,” it added.

“The recently reported B.1.640.2 lineage is being monitored. There is no evidence of rapid spread and while it has characteristics of immune evasion, it is not currently a type of concern. So far No case has been found in India,” INSACOG added.

The bulletin also noted that while the omicron wave continues to expand globally, hospitalization rates are low during this wave.

INSACOG further said, “The omicron wave continues to expand globally, with daily infections setting new highs. The hospitalization rate during this wave is much lower than in the previous wave along the delta, This has resulted in a lower propensity to cause intrinsically lower severity of pneumonia, and higher population immunity. However, because of the high number of cases, the absolute number of hospitalizations has exceeded previous highs in many countries and health care systems. While deaths during the new wave have been much lower than in previous waves, there have been Omicron-linked deaths. In the data to date, the majority of severe cases and deaths have occurred in unvaccinated subjects, which have higher protection than associated with vaccination or previous infection.”

On Sunday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was informed that the country recorded 3,33,533 new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, taking the active caseload to 21,87,205.