Pune: World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said on Thursday that some countries may see “another wave of infections” with the XbB subvariant of Omicron, a strain of the COVID-19 virus. is type. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of the Vaccine Manufacturers Network of Developing Countries (DCVMN), he clarified that as of now, there was no data from any country to suggest that these new variants are clinically more effective. are serious.
“There are over 300 subtypes of Omicron. I think the one that’s related right now is XBB, which is a recombinant virus. We’ve seen some recombinant viruses before. It’s very immunosuppressive, which means it’s antibodies. So little that we could see another wave of infections in some countries because of XBB,” she said.
Swaminathan said they are also looking at derivatives of BA.5 and BA.1, which are also more permeable and anti-immune.
As the virus evolves, it is going to be transmitted more and more, she said.
“As of now, there is no data from any country to suggest that these new subtypes are more clinically severe,” she explained.
Suggesting necessary measures, Dr. Swaminathan said that monitoring and tracking are important steps.
“We need to continue to monitor and track. We have seen that testing has reduced across countries, genomic surveillance has also decreased over the past few months. We need to maintain at least a strategic sample of genomic surveillance. There is a need so that we can keep tracking the variants as we are doing and studying them,” she said.
According to him, the Director-General of WHO has stated that COVID-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern.
He said that 8,000 to 9,000 people are dying every week around the world due to the infection.
Swaminathan said, “So we have not said that the pandemic is over, which means that all precautions and equipment have been continued. The good thing is that we have many tools now and the most important thing is vaccines. “
“As far as vaccine coverage is concerned, we aim to have 100 percent people over the age of 60 and 100 percent health care and frontline workers. Then we aim to achieve 70 percent of the country, But subgroups are more important because they are most likely to face morbidity and mortality,” she said.
She said the Omicron outbreak saw many deaths from elderly groups because they had not been fully vaccinated.
“The full immunization program is really three doses. The primary two doses plus a booster over the next four to six months. But in many countries, including India, the uptake of boosters is low. So we really encourage people to take the third dose. ,” He said.
He advised to continue the use of masks to prevent infection.
“While vaccines still protect us from serious illness and hospitalization, the risk of chronic COVID conditions appears to increase with each infection. So it’s not benign. We shouldn’t be too casual in saying that it’s okay to have an infection. Is.
“Many people think it’s like the flu or any other respiratory infection, but more and more data is emerging about how COVID is affecting all organ systems, not just the respiratory tract. It’s the cardiovascular system and Inflammation also affects the environment. So we’ve seen the risk of diabetes doubled, we’ve seen the risk of heart attacks … and other neurological problems,” Dr. Swaminathan said.