Don't panic but be alert, omicron causes less severe disease than delta: AIIMS doctor

With increasing cases of COVID-19 Omicron variant in the country, Dr Puneet Misra, Professor of Community Medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi on Saturday advised people not to be panic but to remain alert.

Misra mentioned that although the new Omicron variant has higher transmissibility, but it is causing less severe disease compared to the Delta variant.

"It is seen that Omicron's Transmissibility is quite high as compared to Delta variant but with all the evidence we have right now, It is not causing that severe disease as compared to the delta," he said.


"I feel that as of now, there are a good number of people in India who have some kind of immunity either from the natural infection or through the vaccine but still, a huge number of people has no immunity as we have 1.3 billion individuals so there is a need to remain alert," Misra told ANI.

The AIIMS doctor advised people not to panic but be cautious and follow the COVID-appropriate behaviour.

"Don't panic but be alert. One should not go into panic mode by name omicron But yes, one should be alert and keep on taking all precautions because this is the new variant and we have limited knowledge about it," he said.

"So alert means that we should take all the precautions which we are taking for the last two years by following COVID appropriate behaviour, and if you're not vaccinated then go and get the vaccines, both the doses and avoid going to crowded places unnecessarily," he added.

While talking about the symptoms observed in the Omicron variant, Misra also mentioned that with the evidence available till now the chances of getting severe Pneumonia is less as compared to the Delta variant.

"Symptoms are almost the same as we have seen in other variants. Different variants might have different predominant symptoms. So with this(omicron) variant, it has been seen that it is a milder variant and some evidence say that it is multiplying in the throat as compared to the lungs so might be fewer chances of getting severe pneumonia," he said.

"Otherwise, symptoms like sore throat, fever, malaise, weakness and loss of smell, loss of taste are the there," he added.