Only 5% of fully vaccinated Omicron patients needed hospitalization, data in Mumbai shows

Mumbai: Only five percent of the fully vaccinated persons who caught the Omicron variant infection in Mumbai needed hospitalization, as per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) latest sample data.

On the other hand, among those who had not taken a single dose of anti-coronavirus vaccines and who were infected with Omicron, more than 17 percent had to be hospitalized.

In the tenth round of genome sequencing – needed to detect Omicron patients – 376 samples were sent by the civic authorities. Of these, 237 were from Mumbai, and all patients were found to have been infected by the Omicron variant. Of these, 128 patients had taken both doses, and only seven of them had to be hospitalized, including one in ICU while another needed oxygen support.

But of 103 patients who had not taken a single shot of the vaccine, 18 needed hospitalization, the BMC said. Two of them required oxygen support, while one was admitted to ICU.

Mumbai saw its peak Omicron infection in early January, with 20,971 cases being recorded on January 7.

Till Thursday, a total of 5,005 Omicron cases have been reported in Maharashtra. Of these, 4,629 patients have been discharged following a negative RT-PCR test, the state health department has said.