Hospital & Diagnostics Committee of PHDCCI recently organised a webinar on Omicron and Booster dose. The eminent guests present were Dr  Anant Mohan, Professor& Head, Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders, AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, Physician, Epidemiologist and Public Policy & Health Specialist, Dr Anusha Rohit, Head, Department of Microbiology, The Madras Medical Mission.

The webinar was also graced with the presence of Pradeep Multani, President, PHDCCI, Dr GN Qazi, CEO, Hamdard Institute of Medical Science and Research (HIMSR) and HAHC Hospital, Dr Harsh Mahajan, Chair, Hospital & Diagnostics Committee, PHDCCI, Dr Sameer Gupta and Dr Deep Goel, Co-Chairs of the Hospital & Diagnostics Committee, PHDCCI,  Saurabh Sanyal, Secretary-General, PHDCCI and Vivek Seifell, Assistant Secretary-General, PHDCCI.

Dr Mahajan mentioned that the Omicron variant of the virus, even though clinically ascertained to be not as lethal, has the potential to cause another wave of the pandemic.

Dr Mohan shared the clinical and diagnostic perspective of the Covid infection with different variants.

Dr Lahariya briefed about the global perspective of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus, decoupling of disease which means the cases are increasing because of high transmissibility of the variant but the hospitalization cases are very less and also decreasing.

Dr Rohit briefed in detail about the Corona Virus time to time mutations & its different variants of concern. She further mentioned about the potential transmission mechanism of SARS CoV-2 variants of concern which are increased transmission window, increased viral shedding, increased environmental stability and increased binding to host receptor.

Dr Qazi congratulated PHD Chamber for organising an interactive session on this important subject of a booster dose. He further mentioned various clinical trials for COVID-19, which are been conducted at Hamdard Institute.

Dr Gupta mentioned, "We should not drop our guards - Vaccinations, COVID appropriate behaviour (masks, social distancing) remain of paramount importance."

Dr Deep Goel said that not all the mutations are bad but this variant (Omicron) will get us immune against other variants.