PUNE: Eminent virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang on Wednesday stressed on the need to develop a predictable strategy for the country to deal with new variants in the wake of the Omicron variant, instead of formulating a separate approach for each event.
While increased testing helped in detection, she said, it was important to be aware that any level of testing would not detect every single case. Hence, there was a need for preparedness to deal with the cases that might already be in the country or would come through despite the testing, she said, adding that there was no need to panic.
With the country drawing out a plan to sequence all positives to track the new variant, Dr Kang said, “There is a need to have a consistent and clearly laid out strategy in place and we should use this opportunity to develop it.”
She said the S gene dropout was a useful tool and states should ramp up the use of assays that include the S gene as a way of identifying the variant.
Dr Kang said, “The country has drawn out rules for international travellers and there is a need to revisit mandatory quarantine if we have people willing to comply with more frequent visits, such as daily or alternate day rapid antigen tests. It is past time for us to develop policies that allow for surveillance and tracking in a sensible way without random changes. People who comply with requirements should be allowed to function as long as they are negative and isolated when positive.” “It was much too early to comment on any third wave when we have no known cases in the country yet,” she said.
The preliminary data from South Africa indicated high transmissibility of this variant. Dr Kang said, “More data on transmission will be available in the coming weeks as we track the virus in Africa and other countries to which it has spread. In terms of immunity, a complete escape is unlikely given that the more transmissible viruses we have had previously have been covered by vaccines, and the Beta variant, which had the greatest immune escape, did not spread as well as other variants. We shall know more from laboratory experiments in the next few weeks” she said.
The expert said there was not enough data on whether the current variant was more dangerous in the sense of either more severe disease or escape from immunity, or if vaccinated people would be severely affected. She said unvaccinated people were much more likely to be severely affected by any variant than vaccinated individuals.
“What we should worry about the variant is its severity and vaccine escape. Transmissibility matters less if the disease is mild because we get mild viral infections all the time and can handle them quite easily,” she said.
Dr Kang said with the country focused on increasing vaccination, it was imperative that all got their two doses, especially the elderly and those with comorbidities. “Then we should think about boosters for populations that need them and vaccinating adolescents and children,” she said.
