Coronavirus: Why you should consider taking COVID-related measures, even if Omicron is less severe

Recent reports suggest a rise in COVID-19 cases in India. The country records an increase of 611 active COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total tally to 17,698 cases.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there have been 2,706 new cases of COVID-19 and 25 deaths so far in the last 24 hours.

However, amid rising coronavirus cases, many continue to remain less vigilant. This, according to experts, is because of the nature of the Omicron variant, which includes showing lower signs of severity, especially in comparison to the deadly Delta variant.

Since the emergence of the Omicron, first detected in South Africa, doctors and medical professionals believe the variant to be mild and more manageable. However, this does not mean we should take it lightly. Why? Read on to find out.

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Since the beginning of the year, new sub variants of Omicron have been emerging time and again. Currently there are 5 sub variants of Omicron namely BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, BA.5, XE. The XE variant however contains mutations of both BA.1 and BA.2.

While the newer sub-lineages of the Omicron variant have shown no greater signs of severity, they are as transmissible as their parent strain and can cause symptoms such as sore throat, headache, runny nose, skin rash and more.

Moreover, the chances of reinfection are said to be greater with the Omicron as well as its subvariants.

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Several studies have indicated that the Omicron is less severe but more rampant than the Delta.

A BMJ study found that symptomatic infection with omicron variant is milder and shorter than with delta.

Another study suggests Omicron may be 50 percent relatively less severe than Delta, leading to a lower number of hospitalisation cases.

However, while all this evidence highlights the less concerning features of the Omicron variant, studies also highlight how the Omicron variant is much more infectious than the Delta variant.

Early reports from South Africa claimed that Omicron is more transmissible than Delta. As per the data, cases spiked rapidly from 300 a day to 3,000 a day over a two-week period.

That said, even if hospitalisation risks were higher with Delta, given that the Omicron variant is approximately six times more transmissible, likely to cause a higher number of infections, the risk of hospitalization would only be greater with the latter.

Another reason why you should not take COVID-related measures lightly is due to the long COVID symptoms that may persist long after recovery.

According to Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at University of Illinois at Chicago, because omicron is so transmissible, we will have more cases, and thus more long Covid just by nature of the increased number of infections, reports Bloomberg.

That said, even though Omicron leads to mild infections, experts believe symptoms may linger on for weeks and months after recovery. And since the rate of transmission is greater with Omicron, there is likely to be an increase in long COVID cases.

Being a part of a society, we must watch out for those who are vulnerable. While you may be healthy and less at risk of developing serious infections, protecting those who belong to the high risk category should also be your priority.

Older adults, those with underlying diseases, immunocompromised people and people who are getting advanced treatments for pre-existing health conditions are extremely prone to severe COVID infections, even with the Omicron.

That said, taking precautionary measures is of utmost importance.

Wearing your masks, washing your hands frequently and maintaining social distance is very important, especially in current times, when people have dropped their guard and become less caring.

Vaccination continues to be one of the ways to protect against severe infections. Those eligible to take booster shots should receive them immediately.