Unless a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, which is more infectious and virulent than the Delta is allowed to emerge with “carelessness disregarding face masks, hosting indoor events and crowding”, any third wave can be “contained and managed within a particular outbreak area by rigorous testing, tracing and isolating”, observes eminent scientist and director of Tata Institute for Genetics and Society Rakesh Mishra.
“Delta with several fold higher infectious nature has created havoc during the second wave in India and dominated all over the world. Any variant to replace this has to be more infectious. We were caught unprepared then for such a surge, but now we are keeping the virus under watch through genome surveillance,” he explains.
Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG) of 28 institutions has been getting samples from infected patients from different parts of the country but with reduced cases, this number too has reduced, though, for the moment, it is sufficient enough for the scientists to keep track of the mutations, which at an average are two every month.
“Not every mutation is dangerous but there is a chance of a vaccine-breaking variant from emerging if we throw caution to the wind and rush towards normalcy forgetting the period when hospitals were filled and people were running around for oxygen and drugs,” pointed out Dr. Mishra.
Incidentally, research showed that while the Delta variant is “super” infectious, affecting more people in a short time frame, the symptoms and mortalities are more or less the same as any other variant. However, the issue was more people needing hospitalisation putting a lot of pressure on the available healthcare systems, he pointed out.
The former director of CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology said the cases have been coming down in the past few months and with vaccination combined with high sero-positivity in the population, “we are kind of protected” unless an “unusual variant” comes up or is “allowed to creep in with our behaviour”.
Vaccines are not a “guarantee” but face masks are, hence “if we keep using them we can defeat the virus”. Governments and others should continue to emphasise on COVID-appropriate norms and with schools opening, mandatory face masks, vaccinating teaching and non-teaching staff on priority, staggered timings, flexible online/offline options are the way forward, added the top scientist.
