After facing the Wuhan virus that triggered the first wave of Covid, and the deadly Delta variant and more than 250 Omicron variants in the following years, Indians have acquired a healthy level of immunity through natural infection and vaccines.
Posted Date – 11:45 PM, Wed – 1/11/23
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Hyderabad: After facing the Wuhan virus that triggered the first wave of Covid, as well as the deadly Delta variant and over 250 Omicron variants over the past few years, Indians have acquired a healthy level of immunity through natural infection and vaccines.
Therefore, new Covid variants may evade immunity and cause new infections, but these will not be serious, said Dr Vinay K Nandicoori, director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad.
“After three major waves, we’ve developed a good mix of immunity, which means our body’s immunity can recognize the coronavirus and act accordingly. That doesn’t mean we won’t get infected; we may will get infected, some people may have symptoms, but it won’t be severe. That’s why people don’t work here,” Dr Nandicoori told Telangana Today on Wednesday.
On the ongoing Covid wave in the US and China, he said the spike in infections in these countries does not mean that a similar wave will happen in India. “It appears that the severity of Covid variants in a particular place is determined by local dynamics. Such microscopic differences will occur in the future. For example, China and the United States are experiencing new waves of infections, but the rest of the world is not,” he said.
Despite a new wave of Covid infections in other countries due to the new variant, in India the Omicron XBB variant still dominates. “It is clear that most Indians are currently immune to the Omicron variant. The question is what is our body’s long-term memory of immunity to the coronavirus? Answers to such questions will depend on when the individual was last vaccinated and What is a vaccine. These questions will determine the future course of the Covid pandemic,” he said.
CCMB steps up wastewater monitoring
The CCMB, part of the Consortium of Genome Sequencing Laboratories (INSACOG), plans to step up wastewater surveillance measures in India as new Covid variants are reported in China and the US. “Wastewater surveillance gives us more time to identify the presence of new variants so that the healthcare system can respond quickly. Due to the current situation, we will be doing this surveillance more frequently,” said CCMB Director Dr Vinay K Nandicoori.
