On Wednesday, Indian Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya hosted a meeting to review the country’s preparedness against the new BF.7 COVID-19 variant in China.
Several senior health ministry officials participated in the high-level meeting, including Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar and NITI Ayog member for health Dr VK Paul.
The officials reported that the number of cases in India had steadily declined, hitting an average daily caseload of 158 in the week ending 19 December. However, the global total during that same week was 590,000, indicating the need to remain on guard.
In particular, the officials discussed recent spikes in China, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States.
In view of the rising cases of #Covid19 in some countries, reviewed the situation with experts and officials today.
— Dr Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) December 21, 2022
COVID is not over yet. I have directed all concerned to be alert and strengthen surveillance.
We are prepared to manage any situation. pic.twitter.com/DNEj2PmE2W
In this regard, Mandaviya stressed the need to enhance preparedness and remain vigilant for new strains, particularly in light of the holiday season.
Mandaviya called on officials to increase surveillance by genome testing through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network to identify variants in the country. He also directed states and union territories to send daily samples to INSACOG.
The health minister reiterated the “Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in context of COVID-19” from June, which emphasises the importance of early detection, isolation, testing, and management of suspected and confirmed cases.
In addition, he recommended that people resume masking in public places and directed authorities to conduct random tests of incoming international passengers at airports.
The officials underscored the need to remain alert to the threat of the BF.7 strain of the Omicron variant, which they said is behind the current outbreak in China and said could kill millions in the months to come.
Experts say that it is the most infectious among the Omicron variants. In this regard, the World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he is “very concerned” about the COVID-19 surge in China.
Throughout the pandemic, China has maintained a ‘Zero-Covid’ policy, with strict lockdowns. After close to three years, however, this hardline approach resulted in widespread protests and even rare calls for democracy and the downfall of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. Against this backdrop, the government relaxed some of its restrictions, which is believed to have caused case numbers to balloon.
India has already reported four cases of the deadly new variant in Gujarat and Odisha. However, the cases were recorded in July, September, and November and were mild cases that did not require hospitalisation. Currently, there are no active BF.7 cases in India.
#COVID19 | There won't be a lockdown situation in the country since 95% of the people here are vaccinated. The immunity system of Indians is stronger than that of the Chinese...India needs to go back to COVID basics - testing, treating, tracing: Dr Anil Goyal, Indian Medical Assn pic.twitter.com/4VNiwJbBZ0
— ANI (@ANI) December 22, 2022
According to a health official quoted by The Hindu, the Indian Council of Medical Research is looking into whether the variant reacts differently in a population like China, where there has been minimal exposure, compared to India, where citizens have received multiple vaccine doses and been exposed to several variants.
Roughly 90% of India’s population has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, which could give it greater protection against the new variant.
Meanwhile, Vinod Scaria from the CSIR Institute of Genomic and Integrative Biology has said that India should be more concerned about the XBB recombinant variant than BF.7, as it can create “new mutations and cause unseen symptoms.”
On Wednesday, India reported one death and 129 new cases from the virus, taking its number of active cases to 3,408. Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu account for 84% of these cases.
Since the onset of the pandemic, India has reported 44 million cases and 530,000 deaths from COVID-19. Moreover, independent investigations claim the true figure is much higher.