Back'Omicron variant we are seeing...': Expert on emergence of new COVID strain in India
COVID is very much here but it is not intensely circulating in the country, expert said
PremiumNoting that COVID is still circulating, a senior official in Delhi noted that they have already stepped up the genomic surveillance and airport screening. However, ‘no new variant is found till now’.
Dr NK Arora, Chairman, the COVID working group, told the news agency ANI on Tuesday, “The virus is very much here but it is not intensely circulating in the country. We have stepped up our genomic surveillance & started airport screening. Whatever we have found is not that we are getting any new variants."
“Even Sewage sampling has been done but we do not find any new variants or possibility of a surge in the coming week. The Omicron variant we are seeing in India can also be seen in any part of the world"
He also notified that the new variants are not been able to gain a foothold or cause hospitalisation.
“There is no need to panic but we need to keep a very close watch on European, North American & East Asian countries," Dr NK Arora said.
XBB.1.5 most contagious
With the onset of winter, Covid has once again started surging in several countries including the US, Europe and China.
Speaking about the new variants, World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said XBB.1.5 is yet another descendant of Omicron, the most contagious - and now globally dominant - variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. It is an offshoot of XBB, first detected in October, which is itself a recombinant of two other Omicron subvariants. XBB.1.5 has accounted for 27.6% of COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week.
Meanwhile, an analysis by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed a predominance of Omicron sublineages BA.5.2 and BF.7 among locally acquired infections.
Owing to the sudden rise in cases globally, the WHO is once again recommending passengers to wear masks on long-haul flights to counter new variants. WHO's senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said, "this should be a recommendation issued to passengers arriving from anywhere where there is widespread COVID-19 transmission"
"Countries need to look at the evidence base for pre-departure testing", Smallwood added, saying it was crucial not to focus exclusively on one particular geographic area.
If action is considered, she said, "our opinion is that travel measures should be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner".
(With inputs from agencies)
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