Doctors warn of devastating third wave if omicron allowed to spread in India
Delhi’s first case was double-vaccinated, showed no fever
CNS Desk, 07-Dec;India’s leading doctors’ association has warned that the country could witness another devastating wave if additional measures aren’t introduced to prevent an outbreak of the omicron variant.
It has asked the Indian government to announce “additional” doses of vaccines for medical staff as the country is yet to take a decision on booster jabs.
“If we do not take adequate measures, we may have a massive third wave,” the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said. India has so far reported 23 omicron cases.
Meanwhile, the UK’s health secretary Sajid Javid confirmed that “community transmission” of the omicron variant is underway in the country. The announcement means cases are being detected in people who have no history of travel to southern Africa, where the new “variant of concern” was first identified last month.
It comes as more than 51,000 new Covid cases were recorded in the UK in the last 24 hours, including 90 new omicron infections.
The official data also showed that there were a further 41 people who had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19. The figures tend to be lower on a Monday due to a lag in reporting data over the weekend.
The first case of Omicron confirmed in the National Capital is doubly vaccinated with Covishield. With this, the total number of Omicron cases in India touched 14. There were five existing cases till Sunday when Delhi added one more and Rajasthan nine. In Rajasthan, a family returned from South Africa was diagnosed positive with the new variant, and five people were in close contact.(CNS)
