Covid BF.7 variant may not be as serious as in China because India has...: Experts weigh in on possibility of new wave

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Hyderabad: Covid BF.7 variant has created havoc in China and has infected over 37 lakh people. Health experts are of the view that around 1 million deaths will happen due to this variant. But, Indians may not have to worry about it as the severity of the BF.7 variant of coronavirus in India may not be as serious as it is currently prevailing in China. A top official of CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) said that Indians have already developed "herd immunity." Vinay K Nandicoori, Director CCMB, stresses the need to follow Covid appropriate behaviour, and said that there is always a concern that all these variants can escape immunity and can infect people who are vaccinated and even sometimes infected with the previous variants of Omicron.

"The severity of the infection is not as much as it used to be with Delta. That's because we do have herd immunity to an extent. We have herd immunity because we are exposed to the other viruses," he said. 

Media reports indicate that India reported four cases of the BF.7 variant of coronavirus. "We (India) have seen the Delta wave which is a big one. Then we got the vaccination done. And then the Omicron wave came and we continued booster doses. We are different in many ways. What is happening in China may not happen in India because of that," he further said.

India reported 201 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases increased to 3,397, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. The official said the "Zero Covid Policy" followed by China is one of the reasons for the outbreak of the infection in that country and opined that lower vaccination levels may also have contributed to the severity.

"It is that (the zero Covid policy that China is followed) and also the fact is in China, not many people really went for the vaccine as it has happened in India all the older population is vaccinated and sometimes even booster dose has been given to them or the susceptible sections," he said.

Maintaining that at this point it cannot be asserted that there may or may not be a wave in India, Nandicoori said as of now it does not seem to be that alarming that a wave is coming right away. Currently, there is enough capacity within India both for the Covid tests as well as therapy and vaccination. They are accessible to many people, he added.

(With inputs from PTI)