Omicron COVID-19 Strain Successfully Isolated, Grown By Indian Institute, To Help In Assessing Efficacy Of Vaccines: Report

In a major development, India has succeeded in isolating and growing the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 causing virus, in a laboratory environment.

The lab-grown Omicron will help the Indian scientists know the behaviour of the Omicron strain in the local population as well as ascertain its infectiousness and assess the efficacy of existing vaccines.

The Omicron variant has reportedly been isolated and cultured by the experts at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), in its laboratory, people in the know was quoted in a Economic Times report as saying.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Balram Bhargava has said that both ICMR and DBT had some success in culturing the virus.

"Both ICMR and DBT have been working continuously to culture the virus. Initially, we had some difficulty in culturing and growing the virus now we had some success in culturing the virus both at ICMR and DBT," he said.

"We have the sera of Omicron infected individuals, those infected with Delta and the original strain and we are testing the efficacy of the vaccines on these variants," Bhargava added.