COVID-19 Live Updates: Stealth Omicron Spreading Rapidly In China, Should India Be Worried Too?

Experts say that all versions of Omicron are highly contagious, which is why the variant swiftly crowded out earlier forms of the coronavirus, like Delta.

Even as most of the countries are opening up their borders and lifting up the restrictions, China seems to battle a new surge in cases, as the fast-spreading "stealth omicron" variant fuels the country's biggest outbreak since the start of the pandemic two years ago. According to the reports, the country has banned most people from leaving a coronavirus-hit northeastern province and mobilised military reservists from Monday.

The latest data by the National Health Commission shows that the country logged 1,337 locally transmitted cases in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Hong Kong on Monday reported 26,908 new cases and 249 deaths in its latest 24-hour period. The city counts its cases differently than the mainland, combining both rapid antigen tests and PCR test results.

As stealth Omicron variant spread at a fast rate in the regions of China, the question arises about how worried should India be. The country has already faced the worst phase of COVID surge in the second wave and has fought the third wave of COVID-19 too, but is there going to another surge in cases due to the new version of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, known as BA.2.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Omicron has three main [subvariants] BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3. Talking about the severity of the sub-variant of Omicron, experts say that all versions of Omicron are highly contagious, which is why the variant swiftly crowded out earlier forms of the coronavirus, like Delta. But a number of studies have found that BA.2 is even more transmissible than BA.1. Follow TheHealthSite.com for all the latest updates on COVID-19.