There is no need to hit the panic button just yet on the rising cases of Covid in the country, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Rajiv Bahl said
There is no need to hit the panic button just yet on the rising cases of Covid in the country, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Rajiv Bahl said, explaining that the sub-variant in circulation is a descendant of the Omicron variant that Indians are already exposed to. Speaking to HT in an interview, he, however, stressed that there is a need to be vigilant. Edited excerpts:
Is there a surge in Covid-19 cases?
There is a slight increase. Until March, there were almost zero cases of Sars-Cov-2, all the respiratory illness cases were either influenza A or B or RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), and one or two cases of the human metapneumovirus. Since the end of April, we are seeing more cases of Sars-Cov-2. The virus is here, it’s circulating.
Where were the samples taken from?
ICMR runs in 73 labs in medical colleges across the country. Samples are taken from both severe and non-severe patients of SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection) and ILI (Influenza-like Illnesses). We test for all the six-seven common viruses in every patient; so, it is not that we have suddenly started testing for Covid.
How serious does the situation seem?
There is no need to be alarmed… Only isolated mild cases have been reported so far. But should we be complacent? The answer is no. Should we be vigilant? The answer is yes.
Are the current variants more virulent?
At this moment, there is no evidence that any one of the circulating variants causes more severe disease than the previous variants. There is an evolution of variants across the world… it is a sub-variant of omicron that we have seen — the BA.2.86 that has a sub-variant called JN.1.
What are the variants in circulation?
There is JN.1, LF.7, XFG and NB.1.8.1. However, all these have evolved from the Omicron variant BA.2.86 (also known as pirola) either in pure or recombinant form. None of them, however, have been shown to be more severe than what we already know about Covid-19.
Do we have enough vaccines to deal with the current variants?
We do not make vaccine for every variant… We do have the ability to make a vaccine against a variant but we don’t need to make a vaccine. The need of the vaccine is to prevent severe disease and death; we have never given vaccines to prevent mild Covid cases. If severe cases and death are not happening in large numbers, then we don’t need to give vaccine. We are seeing about 1,000 cases currently, if this number increases then we will consider what is the best vaccine to give.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
