Covid-19: Governments must move swiftly to tackle Delta surge, say experts

Amid the rise of the Delta variant in India and other countries particularly in China and Sri Lanka health experts feel itrsquos high time governments took the recent global warning by the World Health Organisation WHO seriouslyDr Wiqar Shaikh Professor of Medicine at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals said the variant which originated in India has become a serious concern He said China known for imposing harsh restrictions is staring at the most extensive outbreak of Covid in five provinces since the virus first spread from Wuhan as per the Chinese state media In Nanjing authorities plan to test all its 93 million residentsThe WHO has reported an 80 per cent rise in Delta cases over the past 4 weeks in five of its six health regions and the fastspreading variant has now reached 132 countries WHO has called Delta ldquoa warningrdquo and the ldquofastest and fittestrdquo of all Covid variants he saidWhile Yale University says Delta can breach protection from the vaccines the USrsquos Centers for Disease Control claims that vaccinated people with Delta infection will spread the disease at the same pace as unvaccinated individuals Citing CDC Dr Shaikh said Delta is more transmissible than influenza Ebola and smallpox Dr Shaikh quoted a recent Lancet report to explain that Delta leads to more hospitalisations and deaths He said Delta Plus is even more dangerousNeed to modify vaccinesDr Shaikh said there is an urgent need to modify vaccines to tackle the Delta variants and it is almost certain that booster doses or annual vaccination will be requiredmidday last week had held a panel discussion of top experts to spread awareness of the Delta variantsmdashThird Wave Challenge to Mumbairsquos Paediatric HealthcareDr Subhash Hira Professor of Global Health at the University of WashingtonSeattle too is concerned by the Delta surge in China ldquoThis sudden change in compliance of China in sharing its Covid situation with WHO has raised alarmsrdquo he saidIn the US UKScotland Australia Sri Lanka Singapore and Canada the R0 reproducibility score has been found to be 8 or more an indication of higher severity of the disease ldquoTwothird of these new Delta infections are occurring in vaccinated people with similar ease as unvaccinated persons if they got exposed to infected persons without wearing a mask and maintaining a 6foot physical distancerdquo he saidEarlier Dr Hira said the highest R0 of 28535 had been reported in April in New Delhi UK and Italy ldquoThe rapid spread of the Delta variant has prompted WHO to issue a global warning two days ago and the recommendation to slow it down by instituting lockouts use of physical barriers by individuals and vaccine coverage The hidden threat is that if the Delta variant is not contained adequately its rapid production in infected persons can lead to new more dangerous variantsrdquo he addedlsquoVariants behave differentlyrsquoDr Fazal Nabi DirectorPaediatrics at Jaslok Hospital said every variant behaves differently and its spread depends on the immunogenicity of the host ldquoWith the new strain on rise even though it may seem more transmissible we can hope that it is less severe as the immunogenicity of the population is changing due to vaccination and natural infectioninduced antibodies in the populationrdquoAbout the surge in China Dr Nabi said ldquoThis could mean that the virus is more transmissible but does not necessarily translate into the variant being more severe to its counter as we must take into consideration the anxiety in the population meaning it could result in the increase in admissions even if the individual shows milder symptoms Severity depends on the complicated course of the disease and mortality of the patientsrdquoThe expert said ldquoAs per studies done in Mumbai we are entering from pandemic to endemic as more than 55 per cent of the population are antibodies positive Moreover as witnessed during the second wave fully vaccinated populations including the elderly and individuals with comorbidity who contracted Covid reported a milder and shorter course of the illness and did not require hospitalisation eitherrdquo he said Shorter milder outbreaksDr Nabi said future outbreaks will be shorter and milder while stressing that children have to be vaccinated quickly ldquoTo reduce the severity and complicated course of the new variant we need to take care of the malnourishment and chronic organ illnesses in childrenrdquo said Dr Nabi adding that children must be encouraged to reduce screen time and go out with precautions to improve their physical and mental wellbeingDr Santosh Bansode HoD of Emergency Medicine at Wockhardt Hospitals Mumbai Central said ldquoThe WHO has stated that the only way to beat Delta strain is to move quickly to be fast and to be strong We must educate people about Delta variants the importance of masks sanitisers and social distancing Fully vaccinated people should also be careful nowrdquoCiting the third wave in many countries he added ldquoWe cannot take the Delta variant lightly This strain can again bring trouble to us We need to vaccinate people at a faster rate and we should not give viruses a chance to mutate more If all of us work together as a team we can keep ourselves saferdquo