NEW DELHI: World Health Organisation’s chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Tuesday said new Covid-19 variants were unlikely to have a Delta-like impact in India in view of the country’s high vaccination rate, especially among the vulnerable population, report Nisha Nambiar & Neha Madaan.
Her observation follows emergence of new sub-variant ‘XE’, which is believed to be 10% more transmissible than other strains of the virus according to the preliminary data. “We are still studying the XE recombinant closely and more information is coming. So far, there is no need to panic as it is not showing any early trends of more severe illness or greater immune evasion to vaccination,” she said, adding that a close watch must be kept on the spread of XE, which has been detected in 600 samples in the UK.
Top health experts said XE was also unlikely to cause significant problems in India as it was a combination of BA.1 and BA.2, the two Omicron sub-variants that have already infected many Indians. “Considering almost all Indians have antibodies against these sub-variants of SARS-CoV2, I doubt it would make any difference to India,” virologist Dr Shahid Jameel told TOI.
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