Omicron's threat

New variant should shake up Indian vaccine complacency

Little is known for certain about the new variant of the Covid-19 virus, first detected in South Africa, and which the World Health Organization has dubbed the omicron variant. Yet whatever is known is not reassuring. The indications are that it is considerably more contagious than even the delta variant, which was first detected in Maharashtra almost a year ago and was partly responsible for India’s devastating second wave earlier this year. What is known is that it has over 50 mutations from the original Covid-19 virus, which was first recorded in Wuhan in late 2019, and that 30 or