New Delhi: Nearly 7 months after the World Health Organization (WHO) withdrew the public health emergency notification for Covid-19, the virus has once again raised tensions, with the Omicron variant turning into a new subvariant.
This also includes the latest JN.1 sub-variant, which has led to an increase in Covid cases. However, experts said that they will wait for a few more days before calling it a new wave and there is no need to panic. He has warned that the ‘Variant of Interest’ list announced by WHO may not be final.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist at WHO, said respiratory infections caused by seasonal flu such as influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2), adenoviruses, rhinoviruses and respiratory syncytial virus can cause monsoon-related illnesses, which could be similar to Covid-19. Same as 19 symptoms.
He further said that ‘It is not possible to test everyone with symptoms. We should test people admitted to hospital suffering from severe respiratory infection or pneumonia.’ One way to predict the increase is to look for microbes in waste water. Dr. Subramaniam Swaminathan, infectious disease specialist at Gleneagles Global Health City, said, in many countries, waste water samples are tested to detect and report various infections spreading in a community.
