This story is from December 16, 2021

India better poised to fight Omicron than Delta: Experts

Top health experts and scientists feel India is in a much better position to tackle Omicron and prevent its rapid spread than Delta.
India better poised to fight Omicron than Delta: Experts
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PUNE: Top health experts and scientists feel India is in a much better position to tackle Omicron and prevent its rapid spread than Delta.
L S Shashidhara, professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, on Wednesday told TOI, “The home-grown Delta variant had emerged as early as October 2020 and was spreading in the country. But its spread was not reported until February.This means that it already had over three months to spread without raising an alarm until mid-February 2021. Omicron has been detected very early in India and patients are being isolated as soon as they test positive for the variant.”
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Shashidhara said the way forward was to detect the variants at the same time as diagnostics — be it Delta or Omicron. “This also helps to detect in real-time in case a third variant emerges.”

Senior scientist Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, former head of the epidemiology and communicable diseases division of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said, “When Delta was initially reported, vaccination coverage had just started, with a chunk of the population susceptible to the virus. A big difference now is that over 55% of India’s eligible adult population is fully vaccinated against Covid as against none when Delta was first detected in India in October 2020.”

Gangakhedkar said India was in a more advantageous position now than when Delta was detected because the country has already started to prepare for containing the variant, irrespective of the scanty information available on its behaviour: such as severity and ability to escape vaccine-induced antibodies.

Dr Samiran Panda, chief of the ICMR’s epidemiology and communicable diseases division, told TOI, "Our modelling study, named CHROMIC, conducted and published in mid-June this year explored scenarios. According to it, the emergence of a variant, which is more transmission efficient or has immune escape ability or both, could drive the third wave."

He said, "The Omicron story is unfolding exactly like we thought. But during the same time, we had also projected that the intensity of the third wave at the district and state level would be much less compared to what the country may experience during the second wave. If the ongoing Covid vaccination programme is ramped up, it will be able to further flatten the curve of symptomatic infections."
Dr Panda said the intensity of another wave might not be as severe as the second one due to the immunity attained during earlier waves.
Senior epidemiologist Dr Amitav Banerjee told TOI, “Cross immunity from natural, prior infection in a chunk of population is likely to give a comprehensive immunity against Omicron.”
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About the Author
Neha Madaan

Neha Madaan is a senior feature writer at The Times of India, Pune. She holds an M A degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from University of Pune. She covers tourism, heritage development and its conservation, apart from an array of subjects such as civic issues, environment, astronomy, civic school education as well as social issues concerning persons with disabilities. Her interests include metaphysical research and animal rights.

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