"No New Wave, Don't Need To Worry": Centre's Covid Panel Chief To NDTV

The recent spike in Covid cases is not a new wave, and is part of the third wave caused by the Omicron variant of the virus, the government's top expert on the viral infection said, stressing that there's no need to worry about the situation, but the Centre will keep monitoring the situation. Cases and positivity rate are not important, what's crucial is that hospital admissions have not increased, he said.

"Infections recorded recently are mild, and the patients heal in four to five days. The chances of serious illness are low," Dr NK Arora, Chairman of India's COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), told NDTV.

Pointing out that there has been no increase in hospital admissions and the death count due to Covid, he said the new mutation of the virus is more contagious but isn't causing serious disease.

"Hospital admissions and deaths are mostly in elderly people and patients with comorbidity. Serious illness is not being seen due to Covid. The infection figure is large and will remain so for some time, but it's not causing serious illness," he said.

Dr Arora said cases have increased due to a sub-variant of Omicron, XBB.1.16, which itself has many sub-variants.

"Around 450 mutations have been seen in the last 15 months," he said.

Stressing the need to get booster doses, Dr Arora revealed that only 27 to 28% of people have taken the booster dose so far. He appealed to the elderly to get booster doses if they haven't yet

"Children are not affected as much as they have been in the last three years. They are getting infected, but either have mild or no symptoms," he said, adding that infections aren't likely to be high in children.

According to the national policy, only children above 12 are vaccinated in our program, Dr Arora further said, adding that more than 90% of children in the age group of 12 to 18 years have received the vaccine.

Covovax, ZyCoV-D, Corbevax, and Covaxin are available for vaccinating children above 12 years of age, he said, adding that there's no policy yet regarding vaccination of children below 12 years. 

The primary vaccine to have been administered to 97% of people, he said.