While the government has confirmed a few cases of co-infection of both Omicron and Delta variants of the coronavirus during its third wave, emerging variants may threaten the improving pandemic situation and economic recovery in the country.
Deltacron, a SARS-CoV-2 virus variant, which has features of both Delta and Omicron, has already been detected in UK, the USA, and Australia. The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), the COVID-19 genomic surveillance committee perturbed over the new variant is already on high alert. However, the authorities have denied the presence of the variant in the country. While the entry of the variant can't be ruled out, the reviving economy may again face a threat from this variant.
The United Nations’ ‘World Economic Situation and Prospects 2022’ report released last month said that India’s economic recovery is on a “solid path”. The report said that India’s GDP is expected to expand by 6.7 per cent in 2022. UN in its report credited the vaccination drive, less stringent social restrictions, and supportive monetary stances as reasons for the growth.
“India will have to worry because another lockdown can cause massive losses in livelihood. The consumption demand is still not picking up after having undergone a huge deceleration. The purchasing power is not improving due to employment losses and cuts in wages and earnings,” said Arup Mitra, professor of economics at Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi.
“Besides, another attack will require substantial amount of both government and private resources to be diverted towards health care and curative measures. All this would involve huge trade-offs with respect to the revival of the demand in the absence of which economic growth cannot be sustained and employment cannot be generated,” he said.
The INSACOG in its recent bulletin had said that BA.2 lineage is in a substantial fraction in India. “BA.2 lineage is in a substantial fraction in India and S gene dropout based screening is thus likely to give high false negatives. S-gene drop-out is a genetic variation like that of the Omicron variant. BA.2 lineage, an infectious sub-variant of Omicron, has been found in a substantial fraction in India, the INSACOG bulletin had said.
“Available information on the B2 variant of Omicron is limited except that it spreads faster. Probably it’s virulence is same as omicron. It may have already been present in the third wave that engulfed our country this year and is now waning. Best would be to watch out for future variants as we continue to resume normalcy taking all personal precautions,” said Dr Atul Mathur, Executive Director - Interventional Cardiology and Chief of Cath Lab.
India’s epidemic curve of COVID-19 is bending downwards for the last one month. At least 16,051 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours. India’s Active Caseload is presently at 2,02,131. Active cases constitute 0.47% of the country's total Positive Cases. Weekly Positivity Rate in the country currently stands at 2.12% and the Daily Positivity rate is reported to be 1.93%, according to the union health ministry data. Meanwhile, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage neared 176 Crores.