With several countries in Europe reporting a new swell in Covid-19 cases and Omicron arising as a largely transmittable variant, the government advised Friday that India has “ entered the peril zone” with mask operation in the country dropping to situations below thepre-second surge.
The government said 25 cases of Omicron have been detected so far in the country. According to available data on clinical symptoms, nine cases have been characteristic and 14 asymptomatic. The government said nine of these persons didn’t have foreign trip history . Significantly, the data shows that 14 persons detected with Omicron in India were completely vaccinated, indicating advance infections caused by the new variant — Covishield (8), Pfizer (5) and, Sinovac (1) Dr V K Paul, head of India’s Covid-19 task force, said the efficacity of vaccines against the new Omicron variant is still being examined. He, still, emphasised that mask operation “ is a universal and social vaccine which is effective against any variant”.
“ I would like to draw your attention to a reality check, on an assessment of the mask operation presently going on in our country. This comes from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation which does these estimates for several countries. Just before the alternate swell, mask operation was at a low position. When the cases started to rise dramatically in May, we all responded, and everyone started to wear masks out of fear,” he said In August, we saw a decline. And in December, we’ve again gone back to the same position. According to this estimate, it has in fact declined indeed further compared to the March situations. In a way, we’ve entered the peril zone. Technically speaking, from a protection capability point of view, we’re now operating at a low position. This is an inferior position. It’s a parlous position,” he said.
While India is presently reporting a decline in cases, Paul flagged the emergence of 70 clusters of Covid-19 cases. “ We should keep in mind that the country is witnessing a cluster of cases. Roughly, we’ve seen 70 similar clusters. We’re probing them … and plant that it’s still caused due to the Delta variant. This is why both boluses of vaccination are veritably important. There’s no need to horrify, but we need to be watchful,” he said.
“ Before the alternate swell, we were at the same position (of mask operation). Suddenly, the situation changed. It was collaborative complacency. It bring us a lot. We’re again advising that time has still not come to discard mask operation. Both vaccines and masks are a must-have,” he said Paul’s warning came in the background of a unforeseen swell in cases across Europe and corridor of the US. “ The global script, especially on Omicron and R0, is veritably disturbing. The UK is reporting 700 cases per million population. This is nearly doubly what we endured before this time. This isn’t a small number. It’s due to Delta, but Omicron is also contributing. France is also seeing a swell. The US is witnessing 4-5 lakh cases per day. We’ve to learn from the global situation. The contagion can throw surprises. Thus, we need to be watchful. And the mask is a universal and social vaccine which is effective against any variant,” he said.
ICMR principal Dr Balram Bhargava said India will soon begin testing of Covaxin and Covishield against Omicron. “ We’ve at this moment, in India, seen 25 cases of Omicron. NIV Pune has got samples from these individualities. We’re trying to grow the contagion … invest it in the culture medium, so that it grows. Once we grow the contagion, we will be suitable to test in the laboratory. And also we will test the efficacity of both Covaxin and Covishield. The work has started and we’re trying multiple societies to grow the contagion,” he said Bhargava said clinically, Omicron isn’t yet posing a burden on the healthcare system. “ Still, the surveillance has to be maintained. Regular meetings are being organised to keep a watch on global scripts. District- position restrictions are to be enforced where test positivity is further than 5 per cent. Also, scientific substantiation for opinion and treatment are being reviewed. The treatment remains unchanged at the moment,” he said He said while India is still examining the issue of administering supporter boluses, the current data shows that antibody response persists for over 9 months after vaccination.
“ There are three aspects of vaccine efficacity antibody response, cellular impunity and mucosal impunity. To measure cellular impunity and mucosal impunity is tough, precious and time- consuming. But we can measure antibody response. That data has shown that vaccines are still effective after nine months to a time. This depends on the type of vaccines,” Bhargava said Indeed if the antibody response falls, the vaccines are still effective. It also varies from individual to existent. But we’ve seen that antibody response persists indeed after a time in numerous people, after the infection. Reasoning that, we can say it’s for nine months. Right now, cellular impunity and mucosal impunity persist. We can still have protection,” he said.
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