Deadly Delta variant displaced by less severe Omicron in city

Delta, the lethal variant of coronavirus that had driven the devastating second wave in the country, has been completely displaced by the less severe Omicron strain in the city.

- Sumitra Deb Roy & Malathy Iyer

Mumbai: Experts said the transition was expected but cautioned against dropping Covid prevention practices as Delta could be lurking in a few pockets where Omicron is yet to circulate widely.

The city’s tenth genome sequencing results, announced on Thursday, found all 237 samples to be affected by the Omicron variant. The sixth genome sequencing carried out in the first week of December had found Omicron’s presence in merely 2% of samples. It means the fast-transmissible variant with better immune escape properties completely replaced Delta in about 90 days.