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New Delhi: In a major breakthrough, scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (NIV) successfully isolated the Omicron strain of the novel coronavirus.
This will help scientists in assessing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines as well as natural infection-induced antibodies in thwarting severe illness.
An ICMR official told TOI that the Omicron variant of the virus, with all its signature changes (mutations), has been isolated.
Omicron tally surges to 961
“This is a milestone achievement that will further facilitate vaccine efficacy studies. In the next two weeks, we will be able to effectively gauge vaccine efficacy of Covishield and Covaxin against the new variant,” TOI quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, India reported 13,154 new COVID-19 cases and 268 deaths in the last 24 hours.
As per the Union Health Ministry report, the tally of Omicron COVID-19 variant cases in the country has gone up to 961 with maximum cases were reported from Delhi (263) and Maharashtra (252).
Delhi accounts for the highest number of Omicron cases (263) in India followed by Maharashtra (252), Gujarat (97), Rajasthan (69), Kerala (65), Telangana (62), Tamil Nadu (45), Karnataka (34), Andhra Pradesh (16), Haryana (12), West Bengal (11), Madhya Pradesh (9), Odisha (9), Uttarakhand (4), Chandigarh (3), Jammu and Kashmir (3), Uttar Pradesh (2), with Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur, Punjab reporting 1 case each.
Weekly positivity rate in India at 0.76 per cent
With this, India’s COVID-19 tally has risen to 34,822,040 while the death toll has mounted to 4,80,860.
The recovery rate in the country currently stands at 98.38 per cent while the weekly positivity rate in the country is 0.76 per cent which remains lesser than 1 per cent for the last 46 days, reported ANI.
The daily positivity rate is 1.10 per cent which remains lesser than 2 per cent for the last 87 days.