DNA Explainer: Why most Omicron patients are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms

India has reported 358 Omicron cases from 17 states as of now, Union Health Ministry said in a press conference. Of these 114 have recovered. 183 Omicron positive cases were analysed by India and some important facts have come to light.

Of the analysed Omicron positive cases, 73% of patients had a foreign travel history. Health Ministry data shows that out of the 183 positive cases 121 patients had foreign travel history while 44 did not have any international travel history.

The biggest shocker however remains that 70% of the infected were found to be asymptomatic and as many as 91% are fully vaccinated, 7% were unvaccinated and 2% were partially vaccinated. Of the infected, 61% are males and 39% are female patients.

More patients of Omicron are asymptomatic

Doctors in Delhi say patients infected with the Omicron variant have milder symptoms in comparison to Delta strain.

They say it is milder in terms of severity when compared to Delta and some of the patients did not even complain of fever.

Dr Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of LNJP Hospital said of the 34 Omicron patients they treated most were asymptomatic.

One patient had low-grade fever, one complained about body ache and the rest of them were having cold-like symptoms.

Dr Kumar said all the patients were given symptomatic treatment only and none of them required steroids, oxygen or antiviral.

These patients were treated with only paracetamol tablets, that too if at all they developed fever. 

Dr Manoj Sharma, a senior consultant of internal medicine at Delhi's Fortis Hospital said Omicron is milder than Delta variant.

What study says about Omicron

Former head of epidemiology and communicable diseases division at ICMR, Dr Lalit Kant said a study was conducted in Hong Kong.

Study showed that after 24 hours, the Omicron variant replicated nearly 70 times more than Delta or the original strain.

This could lead to people shedding more viruses and infecting others more easily, Dr Lalit Kant said.

Experiment was conducted outside human body by taking tissues from bronchus of patients and using it to grow the virus in laboratory.

Omicron replicated 10 times slower in the lung tissue, which could be a probable explanation for it exhibiting milder symptoms.