'Delta Origin' Omicron Also Dominant Variant in India

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The Omicron variant has become the dominant strain even in India, the origin of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

Satyendar Jain, Health Minister of Delhi, said on the 3rd, "An analysis of the genomes of COVID-19 positive samples in New Delhi recently showed that 81% were infected with the Omicron variant."

This survey was conducted at the end of last month, and only 8.5% of the samples were infected with the Delta variant. Minister Jain said, "As Omicron spreads, the share of other variants is very low."

The number of new confirmed cases in New Delhi was less than 100 in mid-last month but surged to 4,099 as of the afternoon of the previous day. In other major cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata, confirmed cases have also surged daily, increasing to 8,082 and 2,801 respectively.

Experts analyzed that the surge in confirmed cases is due to the spread of the Omicron variant. Vaccine expert Dr. NK Arora told NDTV on the same day, "In major cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, and Kolkata, about 75% of confirmed cases appear to be infected with the Omicron variant."

However, the official number of Omicron variant patients in India as of the morning of the same day remains at 1,892. This is interpreted as only a very small portion of the total confirmed cases undergoing genome analysis.

As the Omicron variant spreads, the total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in India surged from 5,026 on the 21st of last month to 37,379 on the same day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.