Amid a rising number of Omicron cases, Maharashtra government’s Covid-19 Task Force member Dr Shashank Joshi said that it is the fastest-spreading infectious disease known to man.
Dr Joshi said that with a rapid generation time (Rt) of approximately 5, Measles doubles 15 days while the same value for Omicron is less than 5, and its doubling time 1.5 to 3 days. However, he added that it is a mild disease and has lower mortality.
In a tweet, Dr Joshi, a diabetologist and endocrinologist, said, “In 60 days after 1 case: measles: 50,600 Omicron: 244,000,000.”
Dr Ishwar Gilada, the Secretary General of Organised Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG), said Omicron "fortunately" doesn’t create more need for oxygen, bed and ICU among infected persons and thus is least virulent and least lethal. He said it can be labelled as a Variant of Support (VOS).
Technical Advisory Group on SARS-COV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) of WHO named the B1.1.529 variant as Omicron, which is a 15th Greek alphabet, skipping Nu and Xi for particular reasons. Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta are other variants of concern, whereas Epsilon, Zeta, Theta, Eta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda and Mu remain Variants of Interest (VOI).
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Published 23 December 2021, 13:22 IST