New Delhi : Healthcare experts urge Indian citizens to wear masks voluntarily, even as Maharashtra and Delhi have lifted Covid restrictions, including mask mandates. Experts have cited the merger of the Covid XE variant in other parts of the world as a way for Indian citizens to deal and keep their guard up against the highly contagious virus.
Health experts have said that mask The single most effective intervention against all forms of coronavirus.
Gujarat registers its first case XE Variants A state official said after authorities on Saturday got the genome sequencing results of a sample taken from a Mumbai-based man who had tested positive for Covid-19 during his visit to Vadodara on March 12, a state official said. the officer said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning against XE, a newer version of Omicron was first detected in the UK, and suggested it may be more permeable than any other. covid-19 stress Until now. The XE variant is a combination or recombinant of both sub-variants – BA.1 and BA.2 – of Omicron.
Meanwhile, Shanghai, China’s most populous city and financial hub, is under severe lockdown as the city has recorded 25,000 active cases daily. Earlier the WHO also reported that they had discovered a few dozen cases of new Omicron subvariants – BA.4 and BA.5 – in South Africa. This said, keeping in mind that BA.1 and BA.2 are still the dominant forms globally.
After more than two years, wearing of masks was made mandatory in Maharashtra and Delhi. In view of the Kovid-19 infection, wearing a mask in public was mandatory and the amount of fine was imposed for not following this protocol. 2,000.
Asked about the impact of the new version on India, which has been witnessing a decline in cases since the subsidence of the Omicron-driven wave in February, experts said there was no need to panic, but voluntary use of masks in public. has been advocated.
Mumbai civic body officials had said that a woman who had come from South Africa in late February and tested positive in March has been infected with the XE variant, but this has not been confirmed by the health ministry.
Eminent virologist T Jacob John said that XE earlier meant XA, XB, XC and XD but none of them got much attention.
“XE attracted attention as it became common in the UK. It had about 10 percent higher transmission efficiency than Omicron’s ba.2 lineage. Many media persons described it as 10 times more transmittable than ba.2 misread and thus, XE gained false notoriety,” he said.
“After the decrease of the omicron wave (mainly BA.2) by the third week of February, there was no cause for alarm even when this one virus was confirmed as Xe. No change in our strategy is called for. While masks have many other benefits as compared to COVID control, and should generally be promoted by health education, the mandate with punishment for non-compliance is quite unnecessary,” he said.
Giridhar R Babu, Professor and Head of Lifecourse Epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India, said reporting of the XE variant should be seen as a strength of the surveillance system.
“XE is a recombinant sublineage of one of several Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants. It is not a variant of concern. We should not work because of its reporting. Certainly, we should not be aware of any reactive Refrain from implementing panic. Remedy. We must remember that the delta version had several sub-lines before Omicron finally changed it,” he told PTI.
Babu said the precautions taken for Omicron should continue before more data on its transmittance in India emerges.
“I think the voluntary use of masks should be encouraged as it is the most effective intervention against all types. However, there should be no penalty, and rather than a mandate, the availability of masks exclusively in closed spaces and free of cost. Must ensure distribution. Settings, will be helpful,” he said.
Babu said there is no data to support warrant restrictions in movement. He added that field investigations of cluster and genomic sequencing should be continued and strengthened to monitor how new sublineages may be affected.
Dr Chandrakant Laharia, a physician and leading epidemiologist who has been involved in India’s pandemic response, said the hype around the XE version is “unnecessary and exaggerated”.
“It has no relevance and no cause to be concerned. The only pertinent point of reporting XE is that India’s genomic surveillance system is working. In this background, XE from India being detected and reported Going is a positive public health signal, but does not change anything for the public or for the COVID-19 response policy,” he said.
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