An opportunity is curved out of adversities. COVID-19 adversity has provided us an opportunity to ramp up healthcare infrastructure not only to cater to the pressing present needs but also, to become future-ready. While Omicron is posing more critical than ever, with its ability for community spread, the need to detect the variant within the shortest possible time has grown increasingly.
In a bid to make faster clinical decisions it is important to detect the type of variant in the very beginning as many other variants including Delta is still present in the community. This will help clinicians decide whether there is a need of monoclonal antibodies for a specific case. Also, the current tests identify SARS-CoV-2. In addition, it will identify whether the sample has omicron or other variants. Genomic sequencing efforts therefore should be directed more at SARS-CoV-2 positive and Omicron negative samples, such an approach would be valuable for public health to identify newer emerging variants. As virus is continuously mutating it is important to know the devil in other variants and act appropriately failing which we may get into yet another catastrophe. Current genomic sequencing methods used to detect Omicron is expensive, hugely resource intensive and time consuming.
FinancialExpress.com, in association with TATA MD, is organizing the virtual round table discussion - “Combatting Omicron - The way forward” to elaborate on how effective testing can help India combat the third wave of COVID-19 in an effective way. The virtual round table will be deliberated by prominent decision-makers in the healthcare domain who will be brain-storm to decode Assessing situation of disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape and evaluate the need for detection of Omicron and its sub-lineages for restricting spread.
