Omicron variant has 35 mutations, finds Delhi hospital study. Read here
Premium- Dr S Kumar, MD of LNJP Hospital has said the health facility has detected 35 mutations as compared to 31 or 32 mutations in the variant found in South Africa
Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in the national capital has done a study on the new strain Omicron and submitted data of around 13 patients. In the study, the LNJP hospital has found 35 mutations, which include three non-significant mutations in the spike protein of the Covid-19 variant.
Speaking to ANI, Dr S Kumar, MD of LNJP Hospital has said the health facility has detected 35 mutations as compared to 31 or 32 mutations in the variant found in South Africa.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the virus has given rise to dozens of variants, four of which have been designated "of concern" by the WHO: Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron.
Main shields against all mutations of virus
Dr Sandeep Nayar, HOD, Respiratory diseases BLK Hospital has advised people to follow Covid appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated, saying that precaution is the only important thing to protect ourselves from the virus and all its mutations.
According to the health expert, India will witness a peak in Covid-19 in January after which the cases might rapidly decline as in the case of South Africa.
"For all variants of COVID-19, be it Delta, Omicron or any other variant, precaution is most important, which we call as COVID appropriate behaviour. This involves social distancing, hand hygiene, wearing masks and getting vaccinated. There is no medication as yet that can 100 per cent cure the disease. Prevention is the only thing that can protect us," Dr Sandeep Nayar, HOD, Respiratory diseases BLK Hospital told ANI.
"COVID-19 cases have been rising for last 8-9 days (nationally); cases in Delhi, Mumbai are almost 4-5 times more. With the surge in cases, it is expected that a peak will be witnessed in January. Hopefully, a sharp decline will be there in peak as we saw in South Africa when cases soared suddenly and then declined," he noted.
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