'Double Variant, Social Mixing & More': Top WHO Scientist Explains Factors Behind India's Covid Explosion

Soumya Swaminathan warned that the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19 appears to be dodging vaccine protections, indicating that it's an extremely rapidly spreading variant. She claimed that the variant alone could not be blamed for the Covid explosion in India.

The World Health Organization's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has claimed that the current COVID-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious, and clearly a contributing factor to the catastrophe unfolding in the country. 

In an interview with AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, which was first detected in last October, appears to be dodging vaccine protections, indicating that it's an extremely rapidly spreading variant. The 62-year-old pediatrician and clinical scientist, Soumya said that, "there have been many accelerators that are fed into this." 

'B 1.617 A Variant Of Concern' - Why?

While several nations including the United States and Britain have said they consider B.1.617 a variant of concern, WHO has listed it as a "variant of interest" but not "variant of concern". The label indicates that t is more dangerous than the original version of the virus by being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past vaccine protections. 

Swaminathan said she expected the WHO to soon follow suit. AFP quoted her as saying, "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." 

Factors Behind Covid Explosion In India? 

Swaminathan claimed that the variant alone could not be blamed for the Covid explosion in India. She described that the country appeared to have let down its guard down, with "huge social mixing and large gatherings".

"In a large country like India, you could have transmission at low levels, which is what happened for many months. It was endemic (and) probably gradually increasing. 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," she said. 

Swaminathan pointed out that with the India, the world's largest vaccine-making nation, is vaccinating its citizens, it is going to take many months if not years to get to the point of 70 to 80 percent coverage. India has fully vaccinated around two percent of the 1.3 billion-plus population.

India registered 4,03,738 new COVID-19 cases, 3,86,444 discharges, and 4,092 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry.

(With agency inputs)