What you need to know about Omicron today

As scientists race to decode the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the tally crossed 60 in India as three new infections were reported from Telangana. At least eight more people were found to be infected with Omicron in Maharashtra, of which, seven are from Mumbai and one from Vasai virar.Delhi reported four more cases of Omicron, with Maharashtra reporting the highest number of cases at 28, followed by Rajasthan at 17. Omicron cases have also been reported in Karnataka (3), Gujarat (4), Kerala (1) and Andhra Pradesh (1) and Union Territories of Delhi (6) and Chandigarh (1).

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN INDIA?

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan has written to district health officials to intensify monitoring and implementation of Covid-19 appropriate behavior in public places. This comes after suspected Covid Omicron variant cases in Tamil Nadu. The Health Secretary instructed authorities to review the inventory of health facilities including beds, oxygen beds, ICUs, ventilators, medicines, in the 12-point instructions in the letter which has been sent.

Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta on Wednesday said that the WHO and ICMR have said that the Omicron variant has the capacity to spread seven times more than the Delta variant. "I don't think that an accurate assessment of this variant's impact has been done yet. We are taking necessary measures- testing, tracking in place," he added.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul hinted at a potential scenario that vaccines being used to inoculate India may become "ineffective in emerging situations." "In the wake of the last three weeks of living with Omicron, we have seen how such doubts have come up. Some of them may be genuine. We still do not have the final picture. And therefore, there is a need for us that we have to be sure about having vaccine platforms that are adaptable quickly. This possibility that we need to tweak for us to remain in the game, so to say, with changing nature of the variants remains valid," Dr Paul said.

OMICRON'S GLOBAL PRESENCE

The British government will remove all 11 countries from its Covid-19 travel red list from Wednesday because there is now community transmission of Omicron in Britain. The 11 countries which will be removed are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul hinted at a potential scenario that vaccines being used to inoculate India may become "ineffective in emerging situations." "In the wake of the last three weeks of living with Omicron, we have seen how such doubts have come up. Some of them may be genuine. We still do not have the final picture. And therefore, there is a need for us that we have to be sure about having vaccine platforms that are adaptable quickly. This possibility that we need to tweak for us to remain in the game, so to say, with the changing nature of the variants remains valid," Dr Paul said.

OMICRON'S GLOBAL PRESENCES

The new Omicron variant was first detected in South Africa and Hong Kong. The British government added 11 African countries to its red list from late November, meaning that only UK citizens or residents arriving from those nations were allowed in and then had to quarantine in a hotel.

South Korea on Wednesday warned that it may reinstate stricter social distancing curbs as it posted a new record daily coronavirus tally due to a persistent spike in breakthrough infections among those vaccinated and serious cases. Daily tallies of infections shot past 7,000 for the first time last week, just days after passing the 5,000 mark, putting ever greater strains on the country's medical capacity.

Total infections in the pandemic so far have risen to 536,495, including 128 cases of the potentially more transmissible Omicron variant, with 4,456 deaths, according to the KDCA.

WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE VACCINE FRONT?Researchers around the world are rushing to figure out what the variant will mean for the coronavirus pandemic, now well into its second year. More information came Tuesday from Pfizer, which announced that its experimental pill to treat COVID-19 — separate from its vaccine — appears effective against omicron.

Separate laboratory testing shows the drug retains its potency against the omicron variant, the company announced, as many experts had predicted. Pfizer tested the antiviral drug against a man-made veon of a key protein that omicron uses to reproduce itself.