Existing covid precautions will do: CCMB

There is no evidence that the new variant is more virulent or that it has the ability to beat existing precautions such as masks, physical distancing and other non-pharmaceutical interventions

Hyderabad: Senior public health officials, geneticists and researchers from Hyderabad have urged the public not to panic over the detection of the new coronavirus strain. There is no evidence that the new variant is more virulent or that it has the ability to beat existing precautions such as masks, physical distancing and other non-pharmaceutical interventions, they have added.

“As a community, at this juncture it is vital that we continue to take precautions, including wearing masks, maintaining physical distancing, avoiding mass gatherings and sanitising hands whenever possible. The virus has a new strain, but the guidelines and the precautions must continue to remain the same. We don’t know when the vaccines will be available to the general public, but we already have a social vaccine in the form of masks and physical distancing,” Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Director Dr RK Mishra told ‘Telangana Today’.

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Health Minister Eatala Rajender urged the public to ensure that they continued to take precautions, which had played a huge role in controlling the pandemic in Telangana. “In the last few months, we have been extremely successful in curbing the spread of Covid-19. A big reason for that is public participation in embracing new social norms. I urge people of Telangana to continue to take precautions, especially during the winter,” Rajender said.

Dr Divya Tej Sowpati, who leads the coronavirus genome sequencing efforts at CCMB, said the mutations of the coronavirus had not worsened the symptoms or the disease outcomes. “We feel that the mutations do not impede vaccine development. The testing protocol also remains the same. The only problem is that the new variant spreads more easily than the others,’ he said.

CCMB Director RK Mishra noted that this was the right time to launch genome surveillance across the country. “Although it is a tough task logistically, I feel that at least one per cent of the Covid positive cases must be genome sequenced. There is a need to watch out and keep an eye for other variants that might emerge independently, as India houses the second largest population infected with this virus,” Dr Mishra said.

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