A very large number of Indians are likely to remain protected from Omicron or any other variant of COVID-19 and there is no need to panic, eminent virologist Dr Shahid Jameel has said.
“While we should be cautious, there is no need to panic. India’s second wave due to the Delta variant was huge, infecting more people than we imagined. This is reflected in the fourth National Sero-survey that showed 67 percent of Indians to have COVID-19 antibodies. That is about 930-940 million people at a time when the vaccination levels were very low, and so it came mainly from infection,” he told PTI in an interview.
“More recently, Delhi showed 97 percent with antibodies, Mumbai around 85-90 percent and so on. All this means that a very large fraction of Indians will be protected from severe disease caused by Omicron or any other variant,” Jameel said.
