Omicron variant. This comes as the country has reported 101 cases of Omicron variant so far. On the contrary, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the regional director of WHO South-East Asia region, on Thursday said that preliminary data suggest that "vaccines may have reduced effectiveness against Omicron". "It will take a few more weeks before there is enough evidence to fully assess the vaccines' performance against Omicron.
We should also not forget that vaccines alone will not get any country out of this pandemic," she said. Prior to this as well, the WHO had stated that vaccines may be less effective against infection and transmission linked to the Omicron variant, which also carries a higher risk of reinfection.