Former AIIMS Director cautions against new Omicron variants in India

New, emerging variants of the Omicron have sparked attention once again and people are being reminded that COVID is not yet wiped out, even though most of Omicron infections reported are milder and less serious, compared to the previous COVID variants.

India reported its first case of Omicron BQ.1 in Maharashtra. The Omicron strain is a fast-spreading variant and people can get easily infected even with limited exposure to the virus.

Maharashtra has also reported India’s first case of XBB. This is a recombinant lineage between two Omicron sublineages BJ.1 and BA.2.75.

Dr Randeep Guleria, the former director of AIIMS, Delhi, cautioned that this new variant “has a tendency to mutate that will continue,” speaking to news agency ANI, he added that now “the situation is different.”