‘Probable Omicron' Are Confirmed Cases: ICMR

Virologists have clarified that Covid patients tagged as ‘Probable Omicron’ cases following genome sequencing are indeed confirmed cases of the new variant as the genome study conforms to the key mutations mapped in the new strain, and only a minor gap in sequencing prompted the use of the term.

- Umesh Isalkar & Sarfaraz Ahmed

Pune/Nagpur: Health authorities, too, have directed the research laboratories involved in genome sequencing to stop using the term ‘Probable Omicron’ for minor genomic gaps if the sequencing matches the key changes (mutations). There are two mapping software — Pangolin and Scorpio — that assign or fix lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes.