Written By: Satata Karmakar | Updated : February 22, 2021 11:40 AM IST
New Indian Covid-19 strains more infectious: Warns AIIMS chief
The AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria has warned that the new Covid-19 strains which are found in Maharashtra could be more dangerous and highly transmissible than the original one.
"Herd immunity for coronavirus is a "myth" in India because at least 80 per cent of people need to have antibodies for the whole of the population to be protected," Guleria was quoted by a national news channel as saying. He went on to add, "The new Indian strain is highly transmissible and dangerous" and could cause re-infections for those who have previously developed anti-bodies".
The chief also emphasised that everyone should maintain Covid-19 rules and get vaccinated. "Vaccines may not provide complete immunity to an individual against the new Covid-19 strains but they are likely to develop a milder version of it," Guleria said.
According to the media reports, almost 240 new Covi-19 strains have been detected across India. These new Covid-19 strains are the main reason why there is a sudden surge in the numbers of active coronavirus cases that the country is witnessing since last week.
Over the past few days, India has been witnessing a rise in the COVID-19 active cases which is pegged at 1,45,634 comprising 1.32 per cent of the country's total infections, the Union Health Ministry said.
According to the current report, there is more than 74 per cent of the active cases of the country are in Kerala and Maharashtra.
Maharashtra, the worst-hit state by the virus in the country, contributed to a chunk of the Covid-19 cases in the last one week, hinting at the re-emergence of the pandemic in the state.
The seven-day average was 11,430 last weekend which rose to 11,825 on February 18. In comparison to the September spike, the rise in cases is negligible. But most importantly, the period when Covid-19 cases nosedived has been replaced by a gradual increase in cases.
November 19 onwards, more than 40,000 cases were registered every day, then a month later these cases were halved. On Thursday, 13,179 fresh cases were reported, which was the highest in more than two weeks.
This week, Maharashtra for the first time reported more than 5,000 cases after a gap of 75 days. Similarly, the cases are beginning to increase in Kerala, Punjab, and other states too.
"In Maharashtra and Kerala, I think the people are taking too much comfort and they may have dropped their guard. Though the gradual decline is encouraging (especially in densely populated hotspots, where maybe 50 per cent have got the infection), it does not mean the pandemic has gone away," said Rakesh Mishpandra, Director at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Hyderabad.
Mishra added that there is a possibility that the correct situation is not being reflected. "Rapid antigen tests are not accurate, they miss up to 50 per cent, and if replaced by RT-PCR, which is more accurate, the accuracy gets increased by 20 per cent. The crowd in hospitals confirms that cases are less and there is a general decrease in positivity over the weeks. However, it does not look like that the pandemic will be over soon," he added.
The query that emerges is whether there is a possibility of a second wave of Covid-19 emerging in the summer or the monsoon season.
Terming the recent drop in COVID-19 cases in the country as a "small window of opportunity", AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria on Saturday called for a public-private partnership (PPP) for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme at a large scale.
Speaking at an AIMA event, Guleria said the vaccine is the only weapon available to gain immunity and help reduce the mortality rate due to infectious disease.
He noted that there was a need to put healthcare at the centre stage and not consider it only as a service sector.
"As far as vaccination is concerned there is still a lot to do and I think there has to be more private-public partnership," the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director said.
There is a need to gradually start opening up in order to cover a large number of people, he noted.
"Vaccinating health care workers and front line workers is probably the easy part as far as Phase 1 is concerned as you know who needs to be vaccinated. The number is not that large.
"Once you start the process to vaccinate 27 crore individuals, in that scenario we must have a robust programme in place where you have the list of people to be vaccinated," Guleria said.
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