Omicron less virulent, Indians must learn to live with virus: Scientist

Indians will have to learn to live with the coronavirus, the country’s top virologist, Dr Gagandeep Kang, said on Friday, as she warned about further “waves”.

The country is currently seeing a rise in COVID cases, likely spurred by the variant Omicron, first detected in November this year in South Africa.

Reports say Omicron has started replacing the Delta variant in India.

Dr Kang said Omicron seems to be less virulent than other Covid variants.

“We will have to learn to live with SARS-CoV-2 and its variants which will continue to emerge. There will be many waves, time and again. But fortunately, Omicron seems comparatively less severe than other variants,” she said.

Talking about the impact of COVID on children, Kang said that it’s better to send kids to schools as they are least affected by the virus. “I believe we should be sending children to schools as generally Covid-19 infections are not much severe in children.”

On the selection of vaccines for the third dose in India, Kang said that data in this regard is less. “Data available to inform a decision as to which vaccine should be used as a booster dose in India is very little,” she said.