The possibilities of community transmission of the highly contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus in Odisha is very high and it may happen anytime very soon, a top official of the State Health and Family Welfare Department said on Monday.
“Community spread means the number of Omicron cases are rising exponentially across the country. In metros, 80 to 90 per cent cases have Omicron strain. However, we have to wait for some time to get the data about the prevalence of the strain in our State,” Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra said on Monday.
“As per the last genome sequencing reports, about 60 per cent of local samples were found carrying Omicron strain and the percentage has certainly increased now. Therefore, we have to wait for the analysis report,” Mishra said.
Explaining about the community spread of the virus, Mishra said if multiple cases are detected from one place with positive persons having no international travel history or contact with foreign travellers, it is termed as 'community transmission', which is a technical term for a phenomenon.
“We have seen Omicron is replacing Delta variant in many countries and it is also happening in many places in our country. Very soon, the variant will be in community transmission stage in Odisha. As transmission rate of Omicron is high, any moment cases might explode,” the Public health director added.