With cases rising again, World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Omicron BA.2 is dominant worldwide including India.
She said several other variants like the XE, BA.4, and BA.5 have also been detected. “Under such circumstances, it is extremely essential to maintain all COVID rules to curb the spread of the virus. She said there is no need for another lockdown-like measure in the future, but ‘all people must wear masks’ as a precautionary measure.
In an interview with Navabharat Times, Swaminathan asserted that COVID is an airborne virus in which closed, crowded places with poor ventilation are at risk. “So, as long as covid continues to spread among people, it is good to maintain caution,” she said.
Swaminathan said if everyone wears a well-fitting face mask, the risk of spreading the infection can be greatly reduced.
“Those who have symptoms of respiratory illness should stay at home and everyone should keep washing their hands. Guidelines can be made according to epidemiology. Public health measures should be tightened as the infection progresses. Immunity wears off over time and even complete vaccination with Omicron does not protect against infection. However, a full course of vaccination is the best defense against serious illness,” she said.
She said WHO is closely monitoring the situation to see if the vaccine composition will need to be modified.
“In the early days of the pandemic, there was no other way to stop the virus from spreading. Today we have good testing facilities, vaccines, and even some useful medicines. So we don’t need to adopt crude measures like lockdown,” she said.
However, whether the government should make masks mandatory or not, all people must wear masks, she said.
