Is Omicron or Delta behind the third COVID wave in India?

Health experts noted that going by the trend, the majority of the positive cases are likely to be Omicron but confirmation is pending.

New Delhi: While the recent surge in Covid cases seen in India is largely due to Omicron, it does not mean that Delta has weakened, experts contend. India on Tuesday (January 11) recorded 1,68,063 new Covid cases, taking the total tally to 8,21,446. Although the fresh infections were 6.4 percent less than Monday when the country logged 1,79,723, the weekly positivity rate has climbed to 8.85 percent and the daily positivity rate has declined to 10.64 percent. On the other hand, 4,461 Omicron cases were recorded from 28 states.

While it is relatively easy to test for Covid-19 through an RT-PCR or RAT test, figuring out which variant is responsible requires genome sequencing.

Data sent to the open access GISAID genomic surveillance showed that more than 30 percent of the sequenced samples from India were Omicron during the month of December.