NEW DELHI: Though the chances of an impact of the new variant of COVID-19 in the country seem slim, experts do not completely rule out the possibility of infections owing to it.
“We cannot exclude the possibility of the new variant not having been carried on to other countries. The new variant has been around for about two months. So there’s a high possibility of the new variant having already spread out — there has been a movement in the past one month. But we are more aware of it,” said Dr Lalit Kant, former Scientist and Head (Epidemiology and. Communicable Diseases Division), ICMR.
He said what is unknown though is the transmission rate of the variant and whether it causes high mortality.
“How effective the vaccines will be is also a question now. The new variant has replaced the previous strain -- while the previous one infected 25-30 people, it could now be infecting 60 people,” he said.
Dr Jugal Kishore, Head, Community Medicine, Safdarjung Hospital, said most likely, the country would not witness any more spikes of Covid-19 in the near future.
He noted that around 70 per cent of the population was already covered under the virus and the rate of infection is declining.
“On the national level, too, the cases are coming down. The fear is that the new strain is a strong one or it could just be another variation…we can say this is the 9th variation which has come. What is not clear is its total impact on the pandemic. We have to wait and watch,” said Dr Kishore.
He said the government took the right step in banning flights from and to the UK.
“The variation (in virus) occurs whenever there is a division of the virus. Minor variations take place when the variant is in millions; that’s the evolution process. If there is a drastic change in the virus, it causes mutation and that is dangerous. As of now it is a variation stage,” he said.
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“Such a variation study is not documented in India; the studies are from other countries. We need to have studies on variations happening in India, the strains it is circulating in India. But irrespective of it, we are in a much better condition than other countries. What needs to be seen is if the new variant is causing infection in those who have already been infected,” he said.
‘Halt UK flights’
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded that flights to the UK be cancelled.
“New mutation of coronavirus has emerged in UK, which is a super-spreader. I urge central govt to ban all flights from UK immediately,” Kejriwal tweeted in the morning. Notably, Kejriwal has also in the past spoken about the problems faced due NRIs coming back to India during the pandemic .
“Delhi faced the repercussions of unchecked international flights earlier. We must learn from it and suspend entry of all flights from the UK immediately. There is a serious risk of importing SARSCoV2 variant ...” said AAP’s spokesperson Raghav Chadha.
‘Only 39.5 thousand had symptoms’
Authorities in Delhi have surveyed over 1.72 crore residents so far for coronavirus-like symptoms to assess the spread of the infection and found that just over 39,500 had cough, fever and other indicators of the viral disease, officials said Monday.
They shared the figurer after Lt Governor Anil Baijal Monday chaired a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority where officers concerned apprised the LG of the declining number of coronavirus cases in the city.