Odisha to ‘wait and watch’ amid downward trend in daily cases

They claimed that the Omicron variant was behind the surge and is now in the community transmission phase.
Image used for representational purpose only. (File photo | AP)
Image used for representational purpose only. (File photo | AP)

BHUBANESWAR: The downward trend in new Covid-19 cases in Odisha for the last four days notwithstanding, the health officials on Sunday opted for ‘wait and watch" instead of summing it up as the beginning of the end of the third wave. They claimed that the Omicron variant was behind the surge and is now in the community transmission phase.

Director of Health Services Dr Bijay Mohapatra said that the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 is no longer spreading from travelers coming from abroad and has spread in the community.

“The patients are, however, recovering fast without any severity of the disease unlike the second wave led by Delta. Since the variant is in community transmission phase and spreading to remote areas, the decline in a number of cases cannot be viewed as the end of the third wave,” he said.

The share of Omicron sub-types in the State has surpassed the Delta sub-lineages which were dominant until January 10. The new variant has been found in around 60 per cent of the 249 community samples sequenced a couple of days back.

Among the districts, the presence of Omicron was the highest in around 70 pc samples in Khurda, followed by 65 pc each in Cuttack and Sundargarh districts and 60 pc in Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts. In a few clusters in Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar, the Omicron share was 76 pc of the 42 samples sequenced on January 15.

The Health Director insisted that there is a need to observe the infection trend for a period of at least a fortnight before coming to any conclusion. The downward trend is a positive indication as the new cases have come down despite more than 70,000 tests a day. However, the decline rate is slow and the test positivity rate is still more than 10 pc, he pointed out.

With absolutely no enforcement on political rallies, health experts, meanwhile, warned that the infection count may rise further and linger the wave if such congregations without Covid appropriate behaviour are not checked. The State recorded 8,520 fresh cases and six deaths taking the tally to 12.04 lakh and the death toll to 8,520. The active cases stood at 74,479 after the recovery of 10,841 patients.

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