‘Very large’ number of Indians may be protected from Omicron: Eminent virologist
New Delhi, Nov 30: A"very large" number of Indians are likely to remain protected from Omicron or any other variant of COVID-19 and there is no need to panic, eminent virologist Dr. Shahid Jameel has said.
Jameel, who is the former head of the advisory group to the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortia (INASACOG), said people must be cautious and keep wearing masks.
''While we should be cautious, there is no need to panic. India's second wave due to the Delta variant was huge, infecting more people than we imagined. This is reflected in the fourth National Sero survey that showed 67 percent of Indians to have Covid antibodies. That is about 930-940 million people at a time when the vaccination levels were very low, and so it came mainly from infection,'' he told PTI in an interview.
''More
recently,
Delhi
showed
97
percent
with
antibodies,
Mumbai
around
85-90
percent,
and
so
on.
All
this
means
that
a
very
large
fraction
of
Indians
will
be
protected
from
severe
disease
caused
by
Omicron
or
any
other
variant,''
Jameel
said.
A
new
variant
of
COVID-19
feared
to
have
a
high
amount
of
spike
mutations,
has
been
detected
in
South
Africa.
On
November
26,
the
WHO
had
designated
B.1.1.529
as
a
variant
of
concern
and
named
it
Omicron.
Speaking on the effectiveness of vaccines against the new variant, Jameel said more data is awaited but vaccine effectiveness against the variant may dip by a few points. However, vaccines will not become useless, he said.
''We don't have this data available yet. It may take another one to two weeks for the first laboratory results to become available. My hunch is that vaccine effectiveness against this variant may dip a few points, but vaccines will not become useless. They will continue to protect from severe disease,'' he said.
On how India can prepare to tackle the new variant, he said people should not panic, and continue to wear masks while the government should increase the rate of vaccination.
''We are fortunate to have sufficient vaccines and the ability to vaccinate. Along this line, it may help to reduce the duration between two doses of Covishield from 16 weeks to 12 weeks. This will get more people vaccinated quickly, especially those in vulnerable age groups (elderly), those with comorbidities, and those in high-risk occupations (health care),'' he said.
On what role a booster dose of vaccine can play against the new variant to tackle waning immunity against COVID-19, he said booster shots help, but it is more important to first get more people vaccinated with two doses. ''Further, about 90 percent of doses in India are Covishield, and this has limited use as a booster. For that, we will need either RNA, DNA, or protein vaccines. For the moment, just make sure more and more people get the two doses,'' he said.
Responding to reports claiming that the variant mainly affects people below 25 years of age, he said there is no data available on the subject.
''So far, the few known patients are in this age group. I doubt it will pose a bigger threat to children who naturally have no or mild disease to this virus,'' Jameel said.