Omicron In Community Transmission Stage, Dominant Strain: INSACOG; Check Details

New Delhi: Omicron is in community transmission stage in the country and is now the dominant variant in several metro cities, INSACOG said in its latest bulletin on Sunday.

INSACOG stands for Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium. It monitors the COVID-19 virus across the nation to understand its spread and behaviour. It released its January 10 bulletin on Sunday.

The BA.2 lineage, an infectious sub-variant of Omicron, has been found in a sizeable number of patients in India and S gene dropout based screening is likely to give high false negatives, it said.

It warned that while most Omicron cases have been asymptomatic or mild, hospitalisations and ICU cases have increased and the threat level remains unchanged.

“The recently reported B.1.640.2 lineage is being monitored. There is no evidence of rapid spread and while it has features of immune escape, it is currently not a variant of concern. So far, no case has been detected in India,” it said.