India’s top virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang on Friday advised people to learn to live with the coronavirus and its variants as they will continue to keep emerging. She further cautioned that there will be many Covid waves “ time and again”, according to news agency ANI.
India is currently seeing an uptick in Covid cases, most likely spurred by the new Covid variant, Omicron, which was first detected in November this year in southern Africa. Reports say that Omicron has started replacing the Delta variant in India. Dr Kang said Omicron seems to be less virulent and potent than other Covid variants so far.
“We will have to learn to live with SARS-CoV-2 and its variants which will continue to emerge. There will be many waves, time and again. But fortunately, Omicron seems comparatively less severe than other variants,” she said. Kang also said the fact that Omicron is “somewhat less severe than other variants” is because India’s population has had high levels of exposure, or has been highly vaccinated. “So Omicron, we hope, will not be as much of a concern as our first experience with Delta (variant),” she said.
Kang further added that the crucial thing to remember is that “we are not today in the same situation that we were in two years ago”. “We have a lot of tools available to us, a better understanding of how to use testing, what kinds of treatments work, and how to use and how to make vaccines that are effective.”
Talking about the impact of Covid on children, Kang said that it’s better to send kids to schools as they are least affected by the virus. “I believe we should be sending children to schools as generally Covid-19 infections are not much severe in children.”
On the selection of vaccines for the third dose in India, Kang said that data in this regard is less. “Data available to inform a decision as to which vaccine should be used as a booster dose in India is very little,” she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on December 25 announced that health and frontline workers and those above 60 years of age with comorbidities will be eligible for a precautionary dose. The vaccination was also expanded for teenagers aged from 15-18 years, which will start from January 3, 2022.
The decision came amid a global alarm over Omicron with India also reporting a sharp surge in daily Covid cases. India logged 16,764 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. The country’s Omicron tally now stands at 1,270 with Maharashtra topping the chart with 450 cases, followed closely by Delhi with 370 cases. Kerala is in third place with 100 Omicron cases.
In the wake of the sudden surge of cases, several states have imposed night curfew and other restrictions ahead of the New Year. While the Maharashtra government has imposed section 144 at tourist spots in Mumbai, Delhi has imposed a night curfew. Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh are among the major states that have clamped night curfew.
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