Fresh wave of Covid infections in Telangana remote: Experts

Hyderabad: Chances of a fresh wave of Covid infections in the coming months due to Omicron variants in Telangana despite geneticists reporting one more BA.5 positive case, were very remote, senior public health officials in Hyderabad said. As on Sunday, one case each of BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the Omicron, which are largely responsible […]

Hyderabad: Chances of a fresh wave of Covid infections in the coming months due to Omicron variants in Telangana despite geneticists reporting one more BA.5 positive case, were very remote, senior public health officials in Hyderabad said.

As on Sunday, one case each of BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the Omicron, which are largely responsible for triggering fresh Covid waves in South Africa, Europe and US, have been reported by genetic researchers from Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), in Telangana.

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The INSACOG data has indicated that so far – Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have reported BA.4 and BA.5 variants. While Tamil Nadu and Gujarat reported one each case of BA.4 and BA.5, according to INSACOG, a case of BA.4 and another case of BA.5 were reported in Telangana in May. Four patients of BA.4 sub-lineage and three cases of BA.5 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant of coronavirus have been found.

Despite the presence of BA.4 and BA.5, which have growth advantages over BA.1 and BA.2 variants of Omicron, senior health officials here said that at present, there are no signs of the new variants of the coronavirus getting any foothold among the community.

“It is becoming clear the immunity gained due to natural infection and vaccines has worked. The vaccine-induced immunity has helped us to get over the third wave in a matter of two months. There have been no fatalities related to Covid infections since past three months,” Director, Public Health, Telangana, Dr G Srinivasa Rao, on Sunday said.

Overall, Telangana has done well in combating Covid pandemic by not imposing extreme lockdown strategies, he said. As a result of such measures, which included avoiding imposition of night curfews for a long time, Telangana achieved herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2, especially against the Omicron variants. Moreover, a cross-sectional community based survey among individuals aged above six years across Telangana, taken-up by State government and ICMR-NIN, has indicated that the seroprevalance among people is close to 93 per cent.

“There could be sporadic cases but overall, the situation of Covid infections is under control and people should not worry about new variants of Omicron,” said Dr Srinivasa Rao pointed out.

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