Study Finds Community Transmission Of Omicron In Delhi, Over 60 Per Cent Had No Travel History
There has been widespread community transmission of the Omicron strain of COVID-19 in Delhi, a new study has said.
The study by the Delhi government-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences looked into genome sequencing data of positive cases collected from five districts of Delhi -- South, Southeast, Southwest, West and East -- between November 25 and December 23 last year and found that over 60 per cent of them had no foreign travel history or contact with international travellers.
A total of 332 samples were sent to ILBS from different testing laboratories across the five districts and out of these, 264 samples that passed "quality check" were analysed.
Out of the 264 samples sequenced, 68.9 per cent were found infected with Delta and its sub-lineages while the remaining 82 samples (31.06 per cent) were Omicron.
In Delhi, the first two cases of Omicron were detected in the first week of December. The study conducted by the Department of Clinical Virology of the facility observed a steep increase in the daily progression of Omicron cases with its preponderance in the community from 1.8 per cent to 54 per cent.
Among the 82 cases, 46.3 per cent belonged to a total of 14 families and out of these, only four families had documented trave history.
Out of the remaining 10 families with no travel history, three families contracted the infection after coming in contact with a non-family member with travel history.
"Rest of the 20 individuals from seven families contracted the infection possibly due to community transmission," it said.
The study stated that 39.1 per cent of the people with Omicron had a history of travel and/or contacts, while 60.9 per cent showed community transmission.
"Our findings strongly suggest that Omicron has a much higher rate of asymptomatic carriage resulting in high prevalence of asymptomatic infection, a likely major factor in the rapid dissemination of the variant locally and globally. Our results suggest a large decrease in protection from vaccine or natural immunity against COVID-19 infections caused by the Omicron variant," noted the study.
Out of 82 Omicron patients, 72 were fully vaccinated with 56 per cent of the individuals having received Covishield, followed by Covaxin (12 per cent), Pfizer (11 per cent), Moderna (four per cent), Sputnik V (four per cent) and Johnson and Johnson (one per cent).
Earlier this month Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain had said that 84 per cent of the new COVID-19 cases in the national capital were Omicron, suggesting that the new variant was already spreading locally.
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