Health experts urge COVID appropriate behaviour as new cases mount

With a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, health experts have urged people to follow COVID appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated. They also cautioned against newer strains of the virus, especially the Brazilian variant (P.1) of Covid-19, which has been found to be more transmissible than the original strain.

New Delhi:As the country is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases with various states imposing lockdowns to combat the rising case count, experts have expressed concern. Health experts in India have also expressed serious concern over the variants of the virus, especially the Brazilian variant (P.1) as it is found to be more transmissible and could cause Covid-19 reinfection.

As of today in the USA, cases of the P.1 variant have been identified in more than 12 states. A new modelling study by researchers in Brazil and United Kingdom suggested that the P.1 variant may be up to 2.2 times more transmissible and could cause Covid-19 reinfection upto 61 percent.

"India's surveillance network so far has not detected this variant, but we should strictly enforce Covid appropriate behaviour including ban on mass gathering," said Dr Tamorish Kole, president of Asian Society for Emergency Medicine in an exclusive interview to ETV Bharat.

He said that mutations are random changes in the DNA of the virus that can alter its shape and the way it behaves.

"When a virus infects a human cell, its main purpose is to replicate and spread. In Brazil, this variant (P.1) was first identified in four travellers who were tested during routine screening at Haneda airport outside Tokyo. This variant has 17 unique mutations, including three in the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein," said Dr Kole.

He said that this variant was detected in the US at the end of January 2021.

"A patient in Brooklyn who has tested for this variant has no travel history and that is a cause of concern," added Dr Kole.

According to experts in the US, P.1 variant has responded very well to the J and J vaccine and data supports a full response to the mRNA vaccines. "The best way to deal with the situation is to vaccinate as many as people possible," said Dr Kole.

It may be mentioned here that the central government had set up Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genome Consortia (INSACOG) to conduct genome surveillance of different strains of the virus in January following the discovery of the UK variant.

The consortium received 19,092 RT PCR positive samples for sequencing as of March 10 with the highest from Kerala (5191), followed by Maharastra (2826), Rajasthan (1963).

The health ministry has informed that the sequencing of 4869 sample has been completed by March 10.

Officials said that 795 cases have been found to be of UK, South African and Brazil variants in India to date.

Talking to ETV Bharat, Dr Suneela Garg, advisor at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that India has got several cases of different mutating strain and the Brazilian strain is also one of them.

"In India, we do have a huge density of population. We don't have Covid appropriate behaviour in place, which may certainly make an individual more vulnerable to the Brazilian strain. As it's more transparent to people, it's going to affect a large number of population," said Dr Garg.

Stating that as of now the Indian vaccines are working against the variant, Dr Garg said, "Over a period of time we can't say that the vaccines are effective. So, we need to vaccinate more and more people."

This variant may infect people who do not have a travel history, she cautioned.