As India breathes a sigh of relief courtesy the decline in coronavirus cases, a Covid task force official has said the next wave is likely to strike the country in another 6 to 8 months in case a new coronavirus variant arrives. Co-Chairman National IMA COVID Task Force Dr Rajeev Jayadevan also said that even though the Omicron BA.2 is more transmissible than the previously identified BA.1 sub-variant, it will not cause another surge.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Jayadevan said: “Virus is going to be around. It will come in ups and downs for a very long time. When the next variant comes, there will be a surge. We do not know when that will be, but history says that it can happen once inevitably six to eight months and that is typically how it acts.”
He added: “But until then, we are now in the low phase Omicron. However, what we should remember is this virus is around which means that we must do everything we can to stop it from infecting us.”
Speaking on the possibility of Omicron BA.2 causing another surge, the official said BA.2 cannot infect those who have previously had BA.1 sub-variant of Covid-19. “It will not cause another surge. BA.2 is not capable of infecting people who had BA.1. It’s not a new virus or strain. BA.2 is a sub-lineage of Omicron,” Dr Jayadevan told ANI.
Like Omicron, future variants might also show vaccine immunity properties, Dr Jayadevan said. “For the last two years, it has constantly evolved to increase its fitness, which is its ability to infect more people and to leap past natural immunity and vaccinated immunity,” he said.
“Omicron showed that even vaccine immunity can be easily surpassed by variants and this trend will be expected in the future as new variants arrive. BA.1 and BA.2 both have immune escape ability which means that if you’ve been naturally infected, or if you’ve been vaccinated or both, this virus can still infect us,” he noted, reported by ANI.
India has been witnessing a dip in coronavirus cases across the country, which has propelled reopening of schools and colleges and various other activities. However, experts have asked to maintain caution and follow Covid-appropariate protocol such as masking and social distancing.
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