With Deltacron cases rising in a few states, health experts say the govt must have a mechanism to maintain a record of results procured this way, to prevent spread of infection
A transit officer, wearing protective gear, controls access to a tunnel in Shanghai where authorities have imposed a lockdown again due to rising Covid-19 cases, on Monday. Pic/AFP
The gradual increase in Covid-19 cases across Maharashtra and a few other states in the past few days has become a matter of concern once again, say health experts. They suggest the government come up with a mechanism to mandatorily make a record of positive results found via self-testing kits at home, for timely preventive measures.
Dr Wiqar Shaikh, professor of medicine, Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals, quoted data from the Johns Hopkins University, USA, which showed 1,581 Covid-19 cases in India on March 21, 2022, 1,778 cases on March 22 and 1,938 cases on March 23. He further quoted INSACOG (Covid Genetics Consortium) and GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) which reported that as of March 24, 568 cases of Covid-19 were under scanner in India for the hybrid Deltacron variant. Dr Shaikh added that seven states have been affected: Karnataka (221), Tamil Nadu (90), Maharashtra (66), Gujarat (33), West Bengal (32), Telangana (25) and Delhi (20).
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Dr Shaikh said, “Deltacron is a ‘recombination’ offspring of the Delta and Omicron variants, wherein the body of the virus is from the Delta variant and the spike protein is from the Omicron variant. Deltacron has a very intense circulation and infects both human beings and animals.” Dr Shaikh also quoted the World Health Organisation (WHO), which said that as of March 23, 2022, there was an increase of 1.2 crore new Covid-19 cases worldwide, a rather worrisome upsurge.
‘Scale up testing’
“Time will tell if Deltacron will displace Omicron, and whether Deltacron will be any better at evading immunity, and if it will cause less or more severe disease. Currently, there are too few Deltacron cases to draw conclusions. So this urgently requires scaling up of testing and genomic surveillance across every country; more so with over 12 million people displaced from Ukraine,” said Dr Subhash Hira, professor of Global Health at University of Washington-Seattle and member of several Covid review forums of WHO-Geneva.
Dr Rajesh Dere, dean, Covid Care Centre, BKC, said, “At present, we have only three mild patients of Deltacron, but the probability of numbers going up cannot be ruled out.” Asked for the reason for the low reporting of Covid-19 cases, another doctor said, “As people continue to make use of over the counter self-testing kits at home, positive cases are not getting reported. The government needs to plan out modalities to ensure that self-testing kits’ positive cases get reported and recorded at least at local civic wards, so that preventive timely measures can be taken to curtail any spread.”
‘Warning to citizens’
“Recombination creates a new virus that may not always be viable, as the mixing of different genes can interfere with the virus’ ability for protein synthesis needed for survival. However, one cannot predict the outcome of the new virus on the pathogenicity. It may either be more virulent with respect to causing disease or may even become too weak to survive. It has also been found that Deltacron strains found in the UK are quite different from other parts of the European subcontinent exemplifying the effect of recombination on survival of the virus. The invasiveness of Deltacron is yet to be determined. However, studies from the UK have revealed that the symptoms of Deltacron continue to be similar such as fever, cough and alteration of sense of smell and taste. Growing information on the Deltacron variant should serve as a warning to our citizens. They should continue the meticulous use of the face mask especially while moving in public places,” said Dr Ketan Vagholkar, professor of surgery at DY Patil College.
“We must encourage people to take Covid vaccines. Mask, social distancing and hand sanitisation is needed. We must keep close watch on how this new variant spreads and not take it lightly. Now, especially since there are no restrictions and people are behaving more casually, we must educate people about this new variant and its potential danger,” Dr Santosh Bansode, head of the department, Emergency Medicine, Wockhardt hospitals, Mumbai Central, said.
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