Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Jan 17: The current surge in Covid-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory is all because of a new variant Omicron, top officials said on Monday.
Top health officials said that there is no need to confirm from whole genome sequencing labs what is the reason behind current surge, “it is definitely because of the new variant Omicron”.
They said that Omicron is spreading at a lightning speed and can upsurge cases in just a few days.
They said that in the second wave it took around 25 days for cases to increase from 100 to 1000 cases but in this wave it took just 12 or 13 days to increase cases from 100 to 1000.
Health officials said that the peak of the wave will also come fast but it won’t last for long unlike the second wave which took time to peak, plateau and then decline.
“Ist to second week of February is expected to be the peak of the wave and till end of the month cases will again go down and till mid-march wave will be over,” they said.
Experts also said that Omicron is very infectious and as per cases of Omicron reported in J&K, it was here in November or starting December, however, results were received around 20 days due to the absence of the genome sequencing labs.
“We have to keep the guard up and are prepared for handling a load that could be there in the coming few weeks as this virus is likely to infect all even those who are fully vaccinated,” they said.
They added new variant hit metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi first, same trend happened in J&K as presently Jammu and Srinagar cities are the worst hit.
They added that like the second wave, peak in J&K will come around a week or two .
“Civic sense must develop and whosoever has fever, cough and other symptoms, must isolate themselves,” they said.
