As per a recent statement by World Health Organization, the new Covid variant, Omicron has been reported in 89 countries and crossed 100 cases in India on Friday. While the country has maintained a weekly Covid positivity rate of less than 1% for a month with cases below 10,000 for 20 days now, Omicron is spreading at an enormous rate.
Dr Anupama, President of American Association of Physicians (Indian Origin), said, “Omicron is the next variant which is mentioned as a Variant of Concern because it started in South Africa and the cases were doubling up. There was little scare that this virus is going to create big devastation all around the world. Omicron is spreading at a faster pace than Delta but the good thing is that it is milder which is why the deaths are very low and its mostly affecting the young population and those who are unvaccinated. So, the catch is vaccination, if you had vaccination then you are more protected and even if you get the symptoms, you will get a mild cold like, but it is not going to cause deaths. Only one death was reported in United States so far. The number of cases is close to 3 % so it’s very low right now but the cases will go up sooner as it’s the winter season in the western world.”
“61% of the population in the United States are double vaccinated and 55 million people have received the booster doses. Still 40% are not vaccinated so the lesson learnt from previous 2 waves, alpha and delta, is that the unvaccinated ones are going to catch this new variant but the variant is a little milder one. So, I don’t think we will witness the deaths and devastation the way we saw during previous waves and still the hospitalizations are due to delta, not Omicron,” she added.
While discussing the vaccination front with Medically Speaking, she said that the vaccines cannot provide 100% protection but two doses of Pfizer and Moderna provided almost 90% form Delta and 70% protection against Omicron.
“We do not have enough data for the booster dose yet but the ones who got the booster dose are not getting this new variant. So I think booster dose is definitely needed by everyone,” Dr Anupama said.
She added, “The vaccine wanes off in a period of 6 -8 months so it is better to get another dose in the next 6-8 months period. If someone got 2 doses, they should be getting 3rd dose in 6 months’ time frame because according to the CDC and our health authorities, antibodies wane in this period. We truly appreciate the rate with which India is administering vaccination among hundreds of crores of people daily. Even in villages, at least 1 dose has been given, but if you want 100% protection, everyone should be vaccinated. But right now, if we are lagging behind with vaccine supplies, I think the most important thing for us to wear is mask.”
Dr Anupama said, “The vaccine wanes off in a period of 6 -8 months so it is better to get another dose in the next 6-8 months period. If someone got 2 doses, they should be getting 3rd dose in 6 months’ time frame because according to the CDC and our health authorities, antibodies wane in this period. We truly appreciate the rate with which India is administering vaccination among hundreds of crores of people daily. Even in villages, at least 1 dose has been given, but if you want 100% protection, everyone should be vaccinated. But right now, if we are lagging behind with vaccine supplies, I think the most important thing for us to wear is mask.”
