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Tag: Soumya Swaminathan

  • BA.2.75, other Omicron sub-variants need to be monitored as they can trigger reinfections: Dr N K Arora

    By Express News Service

    India has not reported a new Covid variant of concern in the past six months. However, there is a need to closely monitor the transmission dynamics and virulence of some Omicron sub-lineages as many of these can trigger reinfections, according to Dr N K Arora, chairperson of the Covid working group, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).

    “Across the country, Omicron’s BA.2 and its sub-lineages, including BA.2.38, are the dominant strains. Recently, BA.4 and BA.5 were found in some 10 per cent of samples. BA.2.75 was also detected. Many of them can trigger reinfections, but they have not been associated with severe disease. Overall, the sub-lineages are evolving and their dynamics need to be closely monitored,” Dr Arora was quoted as saying in a TOI report.

    On Thursday, India reported 18,930 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.  

    ALSO READ | Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75 detected in India, Centre says closely following its clinical behaviour

    According to Dr Arora, the ongoing spike is part of the third wave, not a fourth. “There is another dimension to this. Cases are mostly limited to metros and big cities with high population density. Recently, smaller towns also started to see upticks. Population density, increased travel and gatherings, along with poor adherence to Covid protocols, are factors linked to surges. Important thing is, most patients these days are vaccinated and go on to have common-cold or mild influenza-like illnesses,” he said.

    Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern over sub-lineage BA.2.75 of the Omicron variant which has been detected in India and other countries. “The World Health Organisation is tracking this,” he said.

    WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a video posted on Twitter that there has been an emergence of a sub-variant that is being called the BA.2.75. It was first reported from India and then from about 10 other countries.

    ALSO READ | Active Covid cases in India rise to 1,19,457; New Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75 detected in country

    She said: “There are still limited sequences available of the sub-variant to analyse, but this sub-variant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein. So obviously, that’s a key part of the virus that attaches itself to the human receptor. So we have to watch that. It’s still too early to know if this sub-variant has properties of additional immune evasion or indeed of being more clinically severe. We don’t know that. So we have to wait and see.

    She further said WHO is tracking it and the WHO Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is constantly looking at the data from around the world. “And at any time if there is an emergence of a virus that looks very different from a previous one, enough to be called a separate variant of concern, then the committee will do that.”

    The WHO weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19, released July 6, said that globally, the number of new weekly cases increased for the fourth consecutive week after a declining trend since the last peak in March 2022.

    During the week of June 27 to July 3, over 4.6 million cases were reported, a figure similar to that of the previous week. The number of new weekly deaths declined by 12% as compared to the previous week, with over 8100 fatalities reported. As of July 3, 2022, over 546 million confirmed COVID19 cases and over 6.3 million deaths had been reported globally.

    ALSO READ | Omicron sub-variants are better at evading vaccines, antibody treatments: Study

    The COVID update said that among Omicron lineages, the proportions of BA.5 and BA.4 continue to increase. BA.5 has been detected in 83 countries. Although BA.4, which has been detected in 73 countries, is also rising globally, the rate of increase is not as high as that of BA.5.

    The South-East Asia Region has been reporting an increasing trend in cases since early June, with over 157,000 new cases reported, a 20% increase as compared to the previous week.

    Five of 10 countries (50 per cent) for which data are available showed increases in the number of new cases of 20% or greater, with the greatest proportional increases observed in Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The highest numbers of new cases were reported from India (112,456 new cases, an increase of 21 per cent), Thailand (15,950, an increase of 6 per cent) and Bangladesh (13,516 new cases, a 53 per cent increase).

    The number of new weekly deaths in the region increased by 16 per cent as compared to the previous week, with over 350 new deaths reported.

    The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from India (200 new deaths, a 39 per cent increase), Thailand (108 new deaths, a decline of 14 per cent), and Indonesia (32 new deaths, an increase of 7 per cent).

    WHO Incident Manager COVID-19 Abdi Mahamud said that now is not the time to declare that the pandemic is over. “We’re still in the midst of the pandemic and the virus has a lot of force left. So whether it is the BA.4 or BA.5 or BA.2.75, the virus will continue. It does what it does good,”  he said adding that people and communities must continue to wear masks, avoid crowds and ensure that the most vulnerable and high-risk population is protected.

  • ‘Hospitalisation rising, Omicron can overwhelm health systems’: WHO chief scientist issues warning 

    By Online Desk

    WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Friday said hospitalisation due to Omicron is rising across the world, mostly in unvaccinated people.

    “Though Omicron may cause less severe disease, a small percentage of a huge number is still very large and can overwhelm health systems,” she warned.

    During an interview with CNBC-TV18, the WHO chief scientist said Indians need to be prepared, but not to panic.

    With 309 new cases of highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron detected in the last 24 hours, India’s Omicron tally on Friday rose to 1,270 cases. Of the total, 374 have been discharged.

    Among the 23 states and Union Territories that have reported the Omicron infection so far, Maharashtra tops the list with 450 cases of this variant. Of them, 125 patients have been discharged as per the Health Ministry data.

    ALSO READ | No science behind night curfews in India, says WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan

    Delhi has the second-highest cases of Omicron infection at 320. However, 57 of them have been discharged from the hospital.

    The Omicron outbreak, which has triggered fresh concerns globally and raised an alarm, will see the burden shift from hospitals to the out-patients department, from ICUs to home-based care, Dr Swaminathan said.

    In a separate tweet on Friday, Swaminathan said: “Hospitalisations are also rising, mostly in unvaccinated people. Though #Omicron may cause less severe disease, a small percent of a huge number is still very large & can overwhelm health systems”.

    “Whatever the #covidvariant, #Omicron or #delta – vaccination protects against hospitalisation and death,” she added.

    Swaminathan called for an urgent ramping up of teleconsultation services to tackle the Omicron-fuelled surge.

    While emphasising that the Omicron variant is infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated people worldwide, she said that it appears that vaccines are still proving to be effective because even though the numbers are going up exponentially in many countries, the severity of the disease has not surged to a new level.

  • No science behind night curfews in India, says WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan

    By Online Desk

    There is no science behind night curfews when it comes to tackling the spread of Covid variants, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has stressed.

    In a TV media interview, she said that countries like India must formulate science-based policies for curbing the spread of the virus.

    “Things like night curfew, there is no science behind it. One has to take evidence-based measures. There is a whole list of public health measures,” she told CNBC-TV18.

    “Entertainment venues are places where these viruses spread the most. It’s natural to bring in some restrictions there,” Swaminathan added. She said that Indians need to be prepared, but not panic.

    “What we can expect to see in India is a surge of Omicron cases, I think it is just beginning now in some of the cities and is going to infect a lot of people,” the WHO scientist said.

    ALSO READ | 141 Mumbai residents without travel history test positive for Omicron

    With 309 new cases of highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron detected in the last 24 hours, India’s Omicron tally on Friday rose to 1,270 cases. Of total, 374 have been discharged.

    Among the 23 states and Union Territories that have reported the Omicron infection so far, Maharashtra tops the list with 450 cases of this variant. Of them, 125 patients have been discharged as per the Health Ministry data.

    Delhi has the second-highest cases of Omicron infection at 320. However, 57 of them have been discharged from the hospital.

    In a separate tweet on Friday, Swaminathan said: “Hospitalisations are also rising, mostly in unvaccinated people. Though #Omicron may cause less severe disease, a small percent of a huge number is still very large & can overwhelm health systems”.

    “Whatever the #covidvariant, #Omicron or #delta – vaccination protects against hospitalisation and death,” she added.

    (With agency inputs)

  • Children less severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic: WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Children have been less severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and their chances of recovery are very well, World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Friday.

    She, however, said SARS-CoV2 virus may not disappear, but it is not going to cause the kind of impact and panic it caused over the last two years.

    Participating in a virtual session on ‘Priorities after Pandemic; What Young India wants?’- Indian Student Parliament, Swaminathan said the reason why people talk about children being susceptible is because vaccination programmes today in most countries are targeting people above the age of 18 and elderly as they are the most vulnerable.

    “When you do that, you are left with younger, and younger people who are unvaccinated. And, therefore, when you have the virus circulating in the community, those people are basically the susceptible population,” she said in response to a question.

    In many countries, it is seen that by vaccinating older people, the infection pattern shifts to younger people.

    “I want to assure you that children on the whole have been less severely impacted by this pandemic. Not that they don’t get infected. Yes, they do get infected as adults but they don’t get severely ill. Clearly, it is an age-related correlation with the severity,” she said.

    “Even if they get infected, the chances are that they recover very well,” the WHO chief scientist said.

    On inoculation of children against the virus in India, she said there will be vaccines for children.

    The drug regulator has given a nod to Zydus Cadila for administering to adolescents over 12 years, besides the age group of 18 years and above.

    The phase 2/3 clinical trial data of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin in the age group two to 18 years is underway.

    The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) in July granted permission to Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2/3 trials of COVID-19 vaccine Covovax on children aged two to 17 years with certain conditions.

    Swaminathan added that many countries have third, fourth and fifth waves and hoped that India will not have a third wave.

    Commenting on how the pandemic could shape, she said COVID-19 is going to become the next respiratory virus.

    Stressing that vaccines are working very well and give a good deal of protection, she said wearing a mask, avoiding crowds and mass gatherings, being in a well-ventilated place and respiratory hygiene are some of the measures that can keep the spread of the virus under control.

    “The virus may not disappear. But it is not going to cause the kind of impact, the kind of panic caused over the last two years. Some of these precautions will become part of our life,” she said.

  • Covid in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity: WHO’s Soumya Swaminathan

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Covid-19 in India may be entering “some kind of endemicity” where there is low to moderate level of disease transmission going on, Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist with the World Health Organisation has suggested.

    Different from the pandemic stage when an infectious disease affect a large number of people at one time, in the endemic stage, a disease is present at an approximately constant level within a geography or country.

    In an interview to a news portal, Swaminathan said that given the size of India and heterogeneity of population and immunity status in different parts of the country, it is “very very feasible” that the situation may continue like this with ups and downs in various parts of the nation.

    “We may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low level transmission or moderate level transmission going on but we are not seeing the kinds of exponential growth and peaks that we saw a few months ago,” she said.

    Swaminathan further added that it is likely the scenario in India- given its size, heterogenicity, immunity status, mainly in areas with a more susceptible population.

    “.. so those groups who were perhaps less affected by first and second waves or those areas with low levels of vaccine coverage we could see peaks and troughs for the next several months,” she said.

  • COVID jabs may not provide absolute protection but reduces risk of death, complications: Soumya Swaminathan

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Emphasising the importance of mass Covid vaccination through easy availability and accessibility, WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Thursday said even though vaccines may not be able to provide absolute protection against different variants of SARS-CoV2, it can certainly reduce the risk of death and complications.

    The World Health Organisation’s chief scientist said there will be a need to be on guard in the months to come as well.

    She called on Science and Technology minister Jitendra Singh and discussed various aspects of the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as a wide range of other issues.

    “Even though the vaccine may not be able to provide absolute protection against different variants of virus, it can certainly reduce the risk of death and complications,” a statement quoting Swaminathan said.

    In a country as diverse and heterogeneous as India, with multiple beliefs and faiths, it could not have been easy to embark on such a massive vaccination drive, Singh said.

    “What is important to note is that India under Prime minister Narendra Modi showed a remarkable capacity to rise to the occasion and despite the constraints of resources, within one year, we are in a position to dispense more than one vaccine and other countries of the world are also looking up to us,” the statement quoting Singh said.

  • Mandaviya meets WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan, discusses health body’s approval for Covaxin

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday met WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan and held discussions over the global health body’s approval for Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin.

    “Held a meeting with Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of @WHO. We had a productive discussion on WHO’s approval of @BharatBiotech’s COVAXIN. @DoctorSoumya also appreciated India’s efforts for the containment of #COVID19,” Mandaviya tweeted.

    All documents required for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) have been submitted by Bharat Biotech for COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of July 9 and the review process by the global health body has commenced, the Rajya Sabha was told last month.

    Responding to question on whether it has come to the notice of the government that Covaxin used in India as Covid vaccine is not recognised by many countries, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar in a written reply said, “The Government of India is aware that Covaxin at present is not part of WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL).”

    Elaborating on efforts that have been made by the government to resolve this issue, Pawar said, “All documents required for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) have been submitted by Bharat Biotech International Ltd.to WHO as of 9th July 2021. The review process by WHO has commenced. WHO usually takes up to six weeks to decide on Emergency Use Listing (EUL) submissions.”

    Developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with National Institute of Virology and the Indian Council of Medical Research, Covaxin was approved for emergency use on January 3.

    Trial results later showed the vaccine has an efficacy of 78 per cent.

  • WHO warns against use of ivermectin suggested in India’s national Covid management protocol

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The World Health Organization on Tuesday recommended against the general use of ivermectin, an orally-administered drug used to treat parasitic infections – for treatment of Covid-19.

    This medicine had recently been included in the Union health ministry’s revised national Covid treatment protocol for people with mild disease even though its maker has now clarified that there is no evidence of its efficacy against the viral disease.

    “Safety and efficacy are important when using any drug for a new indication. WHO recommends against use of ‘ivermectin’ for Covid-19 except within clinical trials,” Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist tweeted on Tuesday.

    Safety and efficacy are important when using any drug for a new indication. @WHO recommends against the use of ivermectin for #COVID19 except within clinical trials https://t.co/dSbDiW5tCW
    — Soumya Swaminathan (@doctorsoumya) May 10, 2021

    The latest national clinical guidelines for Covid-19 treatment, developed by AIIMS, Delhi and the ICMR joint taskforce, had listed this drug as a possible treatment option for mild Covid-19 patient under home isolation in the “May Do” category, along with anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

    This drug was classified as a possible therapy for mildly symptomatic patients “based on low certainty of evidence” in the guidelines.

    Goa went a step further and on Monday, state health minister Vishwajit Rane said that all adults will be given this drug as a prophylactic measure. He claimed that the medicine has been found to bring down the Covid-19 mortality rate in several countries, even though the United States Food and Drug Administration had warned against its use in treating coronavirus patients over a year ago.

    ALSO READ | Vaccinated people can be infected with highly infectious Indian mutant but without severe disease: Study

    The WHO advisory meanwhile comes a day after the ivermectin manufacturer Merck & Co issued a statement saying that scientists continue to “carefully examine findings of all available and emerging studies of ‘ivermectin’ for treatment of COVID-19”.

    “…to-date, our analysis has identified: No scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against Covid-19 from pre-clinical studies; No meaningful evidence for clinical activity or efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease, and a concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies,” the statement said.

    Several therapies being used freely in India for Covid-19, despite no evidence, limited evidence of their efficacy or evidence to the contrary, such as plasma therapy, remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine have come under heavy criticism by experts who feel that their usage has fuelled a parallel pandemic of patient exploitation. 

    Most of these unproven therapies, however, are also part of the national Covid-19 treatment protocol issued by the Union government.

  • Variant among accelerators of India’s Covid explosion: WHO top scientist

    By AFP
    GENEVA: A Covid-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and it is feared it could be dodging some vaccine protections, contributing to the country’s explosive outbreak, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Saturday.

    In an interview with AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that “the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it’s an extremely rapidly spreading variant”.

    India on Saturday for the first time registered more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths in just 24 hours, and more than 400,000 new infections.

    New Delhi has struggled to contain the outbreak, which has overwhelmed its healthcare system, and many experts suspect the official death and case numbers are a gross underestimate.

    Swaminathan, an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist, said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, which was first detected in India last October, was clearly a contributing factor to the catastrophe unfolding in her homeland.

    “There have been many accelerators that are fed into this,” the 62-year-old said, stressing that “a more rapidly spreading virus is one of them”.

    The WHO recently listed B.1.617 — which counts several sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics — as a “variant of interest”.

    – Resistant to antibodies? –

    But so far it has stopped short of adding it to its short list of “variants of concern” — a label indicating it is more dangerous than the original version of the virus by being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past vaccine protections.

    Several national health authorities, including in the United States and Britain, have meanwhile said they consider B.1.617 a variant of concern, and Swaminathan said she expected the WHO to soon follow suit.

    “B 1.617 is likely to be a variant of concern because it has some mutations which increase transmission, and which also potentially could make (it) resistant to antibodies that are generated by vaccination or by natural infection,” she said.

    But she insisted that the variant alone could not be blamed for the dramatic surge in cases and deaths seen in India, pointing to “huge social mixing and large gatherings” in recent months. 

    Mass election rallies held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other politicians have for instance partly been blamed by some for the staggering rise in infections.

    But even as many in India felt the crisis was over, dropping mask-wearing and other protection measures, the virus was quietly spreading.

    – ‘Taking off vertically’ –

    “In a large country like India, you could have transmission at low levels, which is what happened for many months,” Swaminathan said.

    “It was endemic (and) probably gradually increasing,” she said, decrying that “those early signs were missed until it reached the point at which it was taking off vertically.”

    “At that point it’s very hard to suppress, because it’s then involving tens of thousands of people and it’s multiplying at a rate at which it’s very difficult to stop.”

    While India is now trying to scale up vaccination to rein in the outbreak, Swaminathan warned that the jabs alone would not be enough to gain control of the situation.

    She pointed out that India, the world’s largest vaccine-making nation, had only fully vaccinated around two percent of the 1.3 billion-plus population.

    “It’s going to take many months if not years to get to the point of 70 to 80 percent coverage,” she said.

    With that prospect, Swaminathan stressed that “for the foreseeable future, we need to depend on our tried and tested public health and social measures” to bring down transmission.

    The surge in India is frightening not only due to the horrifying number of people who are sick and dying there, but also because the exploding infection numbers dramatically increase the chances of new and more dangerous variants emerging.

    “The more the virus is replicating and spreading and transmitting, the more chances are that… mutations will develop and adapt,” Swaminathan said.

    “Variants which accumulate a lot of mutations may ultimately become resistant to the current vaccines that we have,” she warned.

    “That’s going to be a problem for the whole world.”

  • More tests for COVID-19 needed in India, says WHO Chief Scientist

    By PTI
    CHENNAI: Chief scientist of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Soumya Swaminathan on Saturday said there should be more COVID-19 tests as there was heterogeneity (on testing methods) among the states.

    “Testing is really an important issue. At the beginning, WHO found that many countries did not have diagnostics and those which had it was not enough. In fact we found out that diagnostics was lower than it should be,” she said while addressing a session at ‘Shaastra’ organised here at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.

    Stating that WHO has set a benchmark for how much diagnostics in testing was enough, she said if the positivity rate (of a disease) was five per cent or more, it means you should be testing more.

    “There is a lot of heterogeneity in response to testing between state to state and some states have done higher than the others,” she said.

    “Tamil Nadu has done well in terms of testing and the Health Department had set up fever clinics in Chennai, when the cases were going up. So, the strategy needs to be decentralised,” she said.

    Swaminathan said it was not only the Health Department that needs to cope up but also all other departments which have to play a role in providing additional food and service when people lost their jobs, when families were in distress due to the pandemic.

    “We now understand the disease (COVID-19) better, understand epidemiology and it is super-spreader. We know that only 15-16 people who are infected are responsible for the remaining 85 people. We need to be able to identify those situations where these kinds of super-spreaderscan happen,” she said.

    “I think that (testing for COVID-19) will continue through 2021 as well,” she remarked.

    Swaminathan said some low-income countries have done better than the high-income countries as community health workers in (the low-income countries) came to the rescue when COVID-19 outbreak happened by means of visiting houses, checking of new infections.

    “In low-income countries, the whole workforce for contact tracing, visiting houses, engaging community health workers are the ones who actually came to the rescue but whereas in the developed world, where the medical system is well advanced, public health system was neglected. Over the years that aspect collapsed,” she said.

    She said these are the lessons to be learned whether the country was rich or poor and a country can learn from what went right and what did not go well so that the country can make those corrections.