In one of the biggest surprises of the new year in the covid front, some 172 air passengers on arrival at Dimapur airport on January 10 were initially tested positive for covid but the confirmed reports were expected in a day or two.
Nagaland on January 12 recorded massive spike of 199 positive cases.
A senior doctor, speaking to Nagaland Post, said there would be no surprise if most or all of the positive reports were due to Omicron. The doctor said Omicron is very infectious and spreads very fast even without contact. However, he explained, that though very infectious, Omicron did not cause severe symptoms as the Delta variant.
Though adherence to covid protocols continue to be the standard safeguard for protection with the larger objective of breaking the transmission chain; Omicron virus, which are much smaller can be airborne as they are reportedly smaller in size. New research has revealed that Omicron can evade the antibodies generated by vaccines or by treatments administered for Covid-19, however it is neutralised by a booster vaccine. Reports of infection with the new variant have suggest Omicron symptoms are different to the other COVID-19 strains.
A team of researchers in the UK found that the top symptoms for Omicron were a runny nose, a headache, fatigue, sneezing and a sore throat. As with all other Covid strains, the Omicron variant can still cause severe disease or death, particularly for those who are clinically vulnerable.
State logs 86 fresh cases: Nagaland on Thursday recorded 86 fresh Covid-19 positive cases while no deaths were reported during the day. Of the fresh cases, 77 were from Dimapur, six in Kohima and three in Peren, taking the total caseload to 32616.
India logs over 2.4L cases
PTI: India logged 2,47,417 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 236 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,63,17,927 which includes 5,488 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
The country saw a single day jump of 620 cases of the Omicron variant, the highest so far, taking the total tally of such cases to 5,488, out of which 2,162 people have recovered or migrated so far.