New Delhi The Indian government and health officials say that India will not see a new wave of Covid, unlike China, which claims they have not developed herd immunity.
This is even as the government recognizes that 88% of adults aged 18-59 have yet to get booster jobs. There were 6,809 new infections and 26 deaths in India in the last 24 hours.
Top Indian scientists and public health experts said that a large part of India’s population has already been exposed to the omicron variant during the third wave, and has developed hybrid immunity by vaccination, booster doses and natural infection, which is common in China. It’s not like this.
Indian scientists said that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has followed a strategy of strict non-pharmacological interventions such as lockdown; Therefore, their hybrid immunity is not so strong.
With over 300 Omicron variants in circulation in India, scientists believe that India’s population will not be affected by existing Omicron variants until new Variants of Concern (VOCs) flood the country.
Dr Pragya Yadav, Senior Scientist, ICMR-NIV Pune, Government, said, “China has always followed a zero-Covid policy and due to this people in China have not developed hybrid immunity. The jump in new cases in China is due to the Omicron variant and currently only Omicron variants are circulating around the world. But people in India came into contact with Kovid in the first, second and third wave dominated by Omicron. As of now, we can be sure that we can’t be affected by the current Omron version until new VOCs come in which are more dangerous and (if) the vaccines don’t work.”
According to government data, Covid has infected over 44 million people and claimed 5,27,991 lives in India since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Unofficial figures put the death toll several times higher. “We have all the omicron viruses that are circulating in any part of the world and yet the cases of covid are decreasing in India. This means that our COVID vaccination strategy and immunity through natural infection have played an important role. Since there is no new virus, we have to be vigilant and do very good surveillance to detect any new type if it does come up whether it has the potential to cause any seriousness or not. Overall, the situation is under control,” said Dr NK Arora, head of the government’s NTAGI.
Dr Sanjay Rai, professor of community medicine at the government-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said it is highly unlikely that India will ever face a fourth wave due to the high infection rate during the second wave.
“Natural infection occurred to almost all the Indian population during the second wave. Natural infection gives long-lasting protection, almost 100%, whereas protection from vaccination is only for 6-9 months.
“Omicron COVID wave is affecting countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam as they do not have immunity through natural infection.”
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