Omicron Variant Likely To Drive 'Intense But Short' Covid Outbreak In India: Report

The researchers have noticed a significant increase in infection rates across India.

Representational Image. (Source: Getty Images)

New Delhi: The highly infectious Omicron variant may lead to an "intense but short-lived" third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge has predicted. The team has also developed a Covid-19 India tracker.

"It is likely that India will see a period of explosive growth in daily cases and that the intense growth phase will be relatively short," Paul Kattuman, professor at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, was quoted by Bloomberg in its report.

"New infections will start to rise in a few days, maybe this week," he stated, adding that it was difficult to forecast how high the daily cases would go.

The researchers have noticed a significant increase in infection rates across India. On December 24, the tracker spotted six states in India as of "significant concern", with an adjusted growth rate of new cases exceeding 5 per cent. This had expanded to 11 Indian states by December 26, according to the tracker.

India Gearing Up To Battle Omicron

India has reported only 653 Omicron cases so far. Last week, the government approved booster shots for healthcare workers and those above 60 years of age with comorbidities and included teenagers aged 15 to 18 in the vaccination drive. A total of eight Covid-19 vaccines have got emergency use authorisation so far.

Two more vaccines, Corbevax and Covovax, as well as Merck's antiviral pill Molnupiravir were approved by the drug regulator on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Delhi closed theatres, schools, and gyms, as well as imposed limits on public gatherings, a day after it reported the newest cases in more than four months.

The Cambridge India tracker had correctly called the peak of this devastating second wave in May and also forecast in August that India would see a slow burn in its Covid infections curve until the vaccination coverage was sufficiently high, Bloomberg reported.