Although India No worrying trend is observed due to the detection of new omicron Variant, people should not lower their guard against Covid, health experts told News18.com.
India is closely monitoring the behavior of the newly discovered variants of Omicron – BA.4 and BA.5 – as they are suspected to be more infectious than the previous versions.
Dr NK Arora, head of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) – an apex panel that takes key decisions on use and deployment coronavirus Vaccines in India – told News18.com that “newly detected Covid-19 variants, BA.4 and BA.5, may be highly transmissible”.
“India is in the middle of the third wave at the moment. What we have learned about COVID-19 is that different variants will make different waves. Right now, Omicron is driving the third wave in India,” he said.
According to studies and reports from other countries, Arora said, BA.4 and BA.5 have an “evolutionary advantage,” meaning that these variants are highly transmissible compared to others of the same lineage.
“This means that we need to watch the behavior of these forms more closely for the next coming months. Although we do not expect any new waves for the next five to six months, if there are any worldwide We need to keep all possible arms and ammunition ready in case the new version comes out,” he said.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Deputy Director General Dr Samiran Panda said the government is closely monitoring the trends to assess the severity of hospitalizations and deaths, but so far there is no cause for concern.
“The Government of India is not taking any version or subvariant Coronavirus scare. However, the occurrence of new variants and pedigrees should not be a panic,” he said, adding that there is no indication that the infection is increasing as the virus spreads. “The need for hospitalization is also very less. However, strict vigilance and caution are the only keys.”
Similarly, Dr Anurag Agarwal, former director of CSIR-IGIB and dean of Biosciences and Health Research at Ashoka University, believes that “we need to monitor but I don’t see any significant threat to the health system from these types.” This is due to our recent BA.2 wave and higher vaccination coverage of high-risk groups.”
Whereas in India, the omicron wave was the cause of most BA.2 type infections, South Africa Its wave had BA.1 as the dominant version.
Cross-immunity to BA.4 and BA.5 has been found to be lower for BA.1-recovered patients than for BA.1-recovered patients.
So, at the antigenic level, BA.4 and BA.5 are similar to BA.2, but there are substantial differences compared to BA.1. Agarwal expects large BA.4 and BA.5 outbreaks to subside in regions like India, where BA.2 caused major waves.
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