98 PC Covid Infections In Odisha Are Of Omicron Variant: ILS Report

About 98 per cent of Covid infections in Odisha are now carrying the highly-contagious Omicron strain, the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar informed on Thursday. 

The ILS today released the Sequencing Report. The latest report revealed that the institute sequenced 241 samples between January 27 and February 4. Out of the 241 samples, Omicron was detected from 235 samples while Delta variant was found in 6 samples. 

Among the 14 samples received from Angul district, 13 were found with Omicron BA.2 variant. Similarly, 27 Omicron cases were found of 30 samples received from Cuttack. On the other hand, of the 49 samples from Khordha district, 44 were tested with Omicron. 

Eleven Omicron cases were found of 16 samples from Gajapati, while Ganjam registered 46 Omicron cases from 47 samples. In Jagatsinghpur, 9 out of 12 samples had Omicron. 

Districts including Jajpur (8), Kalahandi (5), Kendrapada (12), Mayurbhanj (17), Nabarangpur (16), Sundergarh (3) and Rayagada (1) scored 100 % with the detection of Omicron during the genome sequencing.  

Meanwhile, health expert Dr Srikanth Dhar said, "Even though the Covid cases across the country is witnessing a downtrend, around 60% of the total cases have been detected with Omicron. BA.2 is higher in comparison to BA.1. It can be stated that almost all Covid cases are of Omicron."

"Earlier it was assumed that Delta variant remained higher as the death cases were higher. But now, things have changed. While it was expected that the Omicron will supersede Delta, the latest reports have confirmed it. This might be a good indication that we may soon witness a Covid-free era. However, further mutation of Covid can't be ignored," Dhar added.