New Delhi: Even as the emergence of Delta plus variant of Covid 19 has raised a huge concern amid speculation of a third wave, the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) on Saturday said that with continuous vaccination and Covid appropriate behavior, the risk of third wave won't be severe.
In an exclusive interview to ETV Bharat, CSIR-IGIB director Dr Anurag Agarwal said, "If we continue vaccination and Covid appropriate behavior, risks of third wave will be low. Vaccines seems to be very effective in preventing severe disease."
The CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology is a premier scientific research institute committed primarily to biological research for health care.
Dr Agarwal, however, said that people should be cautious about the Delta variants as the second wave is still continuing. Referring to Delta plus variant, he said that it needs more studies. "We need more case and studies. That is the main focus of investigation. The cases are not just from one State. So far all vaccination breakthroughs with Delta + K417N have been mild," Dr Agarwal added.
The Union Health Ministry has recently announced the Delta plus variant as variant of concern (VOC). The findings on Delta plus variants were made by Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG). Presently having 28 consortium of labs, the consortia was setup by health ministry to carry out genome sequencing of the virus causing the Covid 19 pandemic.
When asked whether 28 consortium are enough to detect variants, Dr Agarwal said that the consortium has sufficient sequencing capacity.
It may be mentioned here that Delta plus variants (AY.1) is characterised by the K417N mutation in spike protein. The spike protein aids the virus to gain receptor-mediated entry into human cells.
The health ministry on Friday said that 48 cases of Delta plus variant have been found in 10 States across India.
Meanwhile, a study conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to ascertain the effectiveness of Covid19 vaccines has found that even single dose is effective in preventing deaths of high risk group people.
Cases of Tamil Nadu police department were considered into the study. The study titled "Covid 19 vaccine effectiveness in preventing deaths among high risk groups in Tamil Nadu" confirmed that Covid19 vaccination, even with single dose, was effective in preventing deaths. "It's necessary to increase coverage of Covid 19 vaccines, regardless of the type of vaccines, to reduce mortality in current as well as future waves of Covid 19 pandemic," the study said.
In the study, data of Tamil Nadu police department were used to estimate the incidence of deaths due to Covid 19 among vaccinated and unvaccinated police personnel. There are 117,524 police personnel working with the Tamil Nadu police department. As per the study, between February 1, 2021 and May 14, 2021, 32,792 received one dose, 67,673 received two doses while 17,059 did not receive any vaccine dose.
"Thirty-one Covid 19 deaths were reported among these police personnel between April 13-May 14, 2021. Of these 31 deaths four had taken two doses of the vaccine, seven had taken one dose and the rest 20 were unvaccinated. The incidence of Covid 19 death among the vaccinated with zero, one and two doses were 1.17, 0.21 and 0.06 per 1000 police personnel," the study said.
Compared to the unvaccinated individuals, the relative risk of Covid 19 deaths among those receiving one and two doses were 0.18 and 0.05 respectively, it said. "The vaccine effectiveness in preventing Covid 19 deaths with one and two doses 82 percent and 95 percent," the ICMR study added.
