The federal authorities have said Omicron was causing fewer hospitalizations and deaths than the Delta variant, which killed hundreds of thousands last year.
But Tarun Bhatnagar from the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai said the impact of the current run-up in infections will show up with a lag.
“We have to worry about hospitalization and deaths and that will come later,” he told Reuters in a phone interview.
“There will always be a lag of two-three weeks.”
India reported 282,970 new infections over the last 24 hours, the highest in eight months, bringing the total to 37.9 million, second-highest globally behind the United States.
Deaths crept up to 441 fatalities, including 83 from a previous wave that Kerala is recording only now, making the nationally tally one of the highest this year.
While infection rates have recently fallen in India’s big cities, experts say cases nationally could peak by the middle of next month.
Reuters
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