Don't underestimate Omicron

Rapid surge can still overwhelm health care system

On Thursday, the Union health ministry reported that the current surge in cases of Covid-19, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus, continues to set new records. Over 90,000 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours, taking the number of active recorded cases to over 285,000. The number of new cases is half as much again as those reported the previous day, showing that the wave has some distance still to run. The earlier hotspots of Delhi and Maharashtra are once again being hit, with the former’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, himself testing positive for