Omicron live updates: Pfizer pill becomes 1st US-authorised home Covid treatment

Of a total of 161 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 detected in the country so far, 13% were mild, whereas 80% were asymptomatic and 44 have recovered so far, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in the Rajya Sabha in his reply to a discussion on emergence of the fast spreading strain. Mandaviya said the government is keeping a close watch on the situation and the virus has also been cultured in labs domestically to test the efficacy of the existing vaccines, results of which may be out in a week’s time. He assured that there was an adequate capacity in terms of labs to test and track the variant.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he would take more steps to slow the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant if needed, after the Netherlands began a fourth lockdown and as other European nations consider Christmas restrictions. "I have to say to the British public, and I say to everybody, we will not exclude the possibility of going further if we have to do things to protect the public," Johnson said after a cabinet meeting.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading faster than the Delta variant and is causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from the COVID-19 disease, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Omicron appears to be better at evading antibodies generated by some COVID-19 vaccines but there are other forms of immunity that may prevent infection and disease, WHO officials said.

There is no clear evidence yet on the transmissibility, immune evasion or severity of Omicron in India, said Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) in its latest bulletin while noting that the variant continues to grow rapidly as a variant of concern globally. "Cases have continued to increase in South Africa, with a smaller but clear rise in hospitalizations. Pending complete genomic sequencing, in the UK, S-gene target failure has shown a very rapid increase in likely Omicron cases and this would represent a significant growth advantage against Delta," the INSACOG said.

Three doses of a Covid vaccine may not be able to curb the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid, warned Ugur Sahin, CEO of Germany-based BioNTech. "We must be aware that even triple-vaccinated are likely to transmit the disease. It is obvious we are far from 95 per cent effectiveness that we obtained against the initial virus," Euronews quoted Sahin as saying.