According to Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African DSI-NSF Centre for Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis, the Omicron strain of the Covid-19 virus will spread rapidly in India. In an interview with Teena Thacker, Pulliam said it’s best to plan for the worst-case situation when it comes to hospital preparedness.
The virus infects persons who have already been infected at a substantially higher rate than in previous forms. According to preliminary data, it’s also causing an upsurge in vaccine-related infections.
Given what we’ve seen in South Africa and what we’re seeing now in other areas of the world, I expect the variation will spread quickly in India, she stated.
We don’t yet know how serious the sickness induced by this variation is. It should be milder in persons who have had a previous infection or vaccine, according to my expectations. People who lack any sort of protective immunity, on the other hand, may suffer illness severity patterns comparable to those seen with previous variations. In terms of hospital planning, I believe it is prudent to plan for the worst-case scenario.
With this variant, there appears to be a higher chance of breakthrough infections; however, it is too early to say if such infections would result in serious disease, she added.
