Another COVID wave likely in 6 to 8 months: Experts as next version emerges

Are we going to see more COVID peaks in the future?

Explaining this the expert said that there could be another COVID wave in the next 6 to 8 months.

“The virus is going to be around. It will fluctuate for a very long time. When the next version comes out, there will be a surge. We don’t know when it will happen, but history says it can happen once. Inevitably Six to eight months and generally that’s how it functions,” said Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, Co-Chair National IMA COVID Task Force, as quoted by the news agency ANI,

“But until then, we are in the low stage of the omicron. However, we must remember that this virus is around, which means we must do everything possible to prevent it from infecting us,” he said.

Could Omicron cause another COVID surge?

Speaking on the possibility of another surge of Omicron BA.2, the official of the COVID Task Force said that BA.2 cannot infect people who previously had a BA.1 sub-version of COVID-19.

Dr Jayadevan told ANI, “It will not lead to another surge. Ba.2 is not able to infect people who had Ba.1. It is not a new virus or strain. Ba.2 is a subtype of Omicron. – Lineage.”

What could be the key features of the next variant?

Like Omicron, future variants may also show vaccine immunity properties, Dr Jayadevan said

“For the past two years, it has evolved steadily to increase its fitness, which is its ability to infect more people and surpass natural immunity and vaccination immunity,” he said.

“Omicron showed that vaccine immunity can also be easily overcome by variants and this trend is to be expected in the future as new variants arrive. Both BA.1 and BA.2 have the ability to evade immunity, which means That if you are naturally infected, or if you have been vaccinated or both, then this virus can still infect us,” he said, as reported by ANI.