BackAnother COVID wave likely in 6 to 8 months: Expert indicates emergence of next variant. Read here
Even though the Omicron BA.2 is more transmissible than the previously identified BA.1 subvariant, it will not cause another surge, the COVID task force official said
PremiumThe next COVID wave is likely to strike the country in another 6 to 8 months in case a new coronavirus variant arrives, a COVID task force official said. Also, even though the Omicron BA.2 is more transmissible than the previously identified BA.1 subvariant, it will not cause another surge, the official asserted.
Are we going to witness more COVID peaks in the future?
Explaining this, the expert said there can be another COVID wave in the next 6 to 8 months.
"Virus is going to be around. It will come in ups and downs for a very long time. When the next variant comes, there will be a surge. We do not know when that will be, but history says that it can happen once inevitably six to eight months and that is typically how it acts," Co-Chairman National IMA COVID Task Force Dr Rajeev Jayadevan said, as quoted by news agency ANI.
"But until then, we are now in the low phase Omicron. However, what we should remember is this virus is around which means that we must do everything we can to stop it from infecting us," he added.
Can Omicron cause another COVID surge?
Speaking on the possibility of Omicron BA.2 causing another surge, the COVID task force official said BA.2 cannot infect those who have previously had BA.1 sub-variant of COVID-19.
"It will not cause another surge. BA.2 is not capable of infecting people who had BA.1. It's not a new virus or strain. BA.2 is a sub-lineage of Omicron," Dr Jayadevan told ANI.
What can be the prominent characteristics of the next variant?
Like Omicron, future variants might also show vaccine immunity properties, Dr Jayadevan said
“For the last two years, it has constantly evolved to increase its fitness, which is its ability to infect more people and to leap past natural immunity and vaccinated immunity," he said.
"Omicron showed that even vaccine immunity can be easily surpassed by variants and this trend will be expected in the future as new variants arrive. BA.1 and BA.2 both have immune escape ability which means that if you've been naturally infected, or if you've been vaccinated or both, this virus can still infect us," he noted, reported by ANI.
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