Omicron cases in India: The number of Omicron infections in India could peak late in January or early in February, said Dr Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
Omicron news: Dr Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said that India is likely to see as many infections in the Omicron-driven surge as it saw during the Delta wave. (File photo of a crowd in Varanasi)
India is likely to see as many infections in the Omicron-driven surge as it saw during the Delta wave, said Dr Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and Chair of the Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington.
While the government has maintained that India has handled Covid-19 better than other countries, the concerns are now growing even as the number of cases crossed the 50,000-cases mark again on Tuesday.
He said that although vaccination will keep the symptoms mild, Omicron will infect a large number of people and no amount of restrictions can stop that.
In an exclusive interview with India Today, Dr Christopher Murray said the Omicron variant will lead to three billion infections across the world in a span of just two months. “Amid this surge, India could see as many infections it saw during the Delta wave,” he said.
Projecting that the peak of transmissions could be attained in mid-January, he said that this would likely amount to over 35 million global infections a day. This is three times the number seen during the Delta wave peak in April.
“In India, the number of infections could peak late in January or early February,” he said.
“Reported cases will increase at a rate that is less than infections because we expect the much higher fraction of asymptomatic patients will lower the infection-detection rate,” he said. Hospitalizations and deaths in the world will be much fewer than the reported cases, he said.
For the US, hospitalisations and deaths will remain below the Delta-peak that was seen in September and well below the winter peaks seen in 2020-2021, Murray said.
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