Nepal on Friday reported 24 new Omicron cases, just as daily coronavirus cases jumped.

According to the Health Ministry, 572 people tested positive from 8,272 polymerase chain reaction tests while 396 tested positive from 6,699 antigen tests. The number of total positive cases in the last 24 hours stood at 968, almost twice from the day before.

The Covid-19 cases from PCR tests crossed the 500 mark for the first time since October 28.

“The writing is on the wall,” said Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of the Clinical Research Unit at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Teku. “Omicron is spreading fast.”

Earlier on Friday, the Ministry of Health and Population said in a statement that S-gene target dropout was found in 250 samples from among the 1,146 random positive samples collected in the month of Poush (since December 16). “That’s 22 percent of the positive cases that showed S-gene target failure.”

According to the ministry, gene sequencing tests performed on 24 samples with S-gene dropout showed Omicron infections in all of them.

The World Health Organisation says S-gene is not present in Omicron due to multiple mutations the variant has undergone and is considered a marker to identify the latest iteration of the coronavirus.

“One of the target genes is not detected [called S-gene dropout or S-gene target failure] and this test can therefore be used as a marker for this variant, pending sequencing confirmation,” states the UN health body.

Earlier this week, officials said S-gene dropout was found in several infected people.

Dr Sangita Mishra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, told the Post that the ministry had asked laboratories to send swab samples of infected people whose S-gene is missing, to Kathmandu for whole-genome sequencing,” she said.

A spike in Covid-19 cases with fresh Omicron infections comes as a major cause for concern amid lackadaisical approaches people have been taking lately, say experts.

“I don’t see people taking safety measures these days,” said Dr Pun. “Vaccination is the key. Authorities must prepare for the worst, as the third wave looms.”

Friday’s Omicron infections take the total number of cases from the new iteration of the virus to 27. Earlier in December, three Omicron cases were confirmed in Nepal, but all three infected persons tested negative later.

Nepal could soon be overwhelmed with new cases also because neighbouring India has been reporting a sharp spike in the number of cases. India on Friday reported 117,100 new Covid-19 cases, highest since early June, as the Omicron variant overtook Delta cases in the cities. The country also reported 302 new deaths, taking the total to 483,178.

Delta has been the most dominant variant in Nepal, which wreaked havoc in April last year, weeks after India faced a severe Covid-19 crisis.

Since Nepal and India share a porous border—around 1,800 kilometres long—and thousands of people cross over into each other’s territory every day, a spike in Covid-19 cases in the southern neighbour sets off alarm bells in Nepal.

During the second wave last year, Nepal was mirroring India—hospitals were short of beds, oxygen, and ventilators.

Now both the countries are facing a twin threat of Delta and Omicron.

The WHO said on Thursday that the Omicron variant appears to produce less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but should not be categorised as “mild”.

“While Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as mild,” director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the same briefing in Geneva. “Just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people.”

Dr Baburam Marasini, former director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, said the Omicron variant has already started to spread in communities as government authorities failed to take measures despite repeated warnings by public health experts.

“The government should have tightened the borders and the airport and quarantined everyone entering the country. It looks like it’s already too late now,” Dr Marasini told the Post. “Authorities have also failed to up the vaccination pace despite having enough doses in stock."

As of Friday, the number of active cases in Nepal stands at 5,741. No new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Covid-19 has so far claimed 11,602 in Nepal. 

Nepal so far has received 39,203,927 doses of vaccines—Vero Cell, Covishield, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson.

Despite announcing extended doses for people with immunodeficiency, active cancer patients, people who have undergone organ transplantation, people living with HIV, those taking immunosuppressants, and those above 60 years who have taken the Vero Cell vaccine, the government backtracked on the decision on January 4, saying it created confusion among people and drew criticism from various quarters, as a lot of people have not taken even the first dose of vaccine.

The government has announced it will start administering boosters shots after 40 percent of the over 30 million population is fully immunised.

Experts say had the vaccination drive been stepped up—and had the government been able to implement the plan to jab 500,000 people a day—the target would have been met by now.

Marasini said despite the new variant of the virus putting countries across the world on tenterhooks, authorities in Nepal seem to have done precious little to check the spread.

“If the data in the Health Ministry statement is anything to go by, Omicron seems to have made its way deep into communities,” said Marasini. “It now also depends on how the new variant behaves in Nepal.”

After its emergence in December 2019, the coronavirus spread to many countries pretty quickly, but it behaved in different societies differently. During the first wave, after Nepal reported its first coronavirus case in the third week of January 2020, the country managed to escape almost unscathed, until the second wave brought a crisis.

The Health Ministry in its statement on Friday urged everyone to exercise caution in view of the rising Omicron cases across the world.

“Taking into consideration the current data from across the world and Nepal, everyone should take additional safety measures as Covid-19 cases due to Omicron could rise exponentially,” the statement reads. “We urge everyone to adhere to public health safety measures.”

As of Friday, the number of active cases in Nepal stands at 5,741. No new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Covid-19 has so far claimed 11,602 in Nepal.

After the country saw a sharp spike in cases, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday called a meeting of the Directive Committee of the Covid Crisis Management Coordination Centre (CCMCC).

“The meeting reviewed the latest Covid-19 situation,” Chief Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi told the Post. “A decision has been taken that the Ministry of Health and CCMCC would come with an action plan to tackle the third wave.”

The meeting, according to Bairagi, also decided to speed up the vaccination drive from the third week of January, particularly for people above 60 years and those with compromised immunity as well as frontline workers.

“The prime minister instructed us to monitor the situation on a daily basis, take stock of the status of the hospitals and other requirements like oxygen, medicine, beds and ventilators,” said Bairagi. “We have also decided to launch booster shots from the third week of January.”