WHO chief scientist says COVID inching to an endemic stage in India

New Delhi: Chief scientist of World Health organisation (WHO), Soumya Swaminathan, said that in India, Covid-19 might be entering a stage of endemicity where the level of transmission is low or moderate, reports PTI. She was giving an interview to journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire.

Swaminathan said that considering the size of the country, heterogeneity of the population and immunity status in different parts, the current situation may continue with ups and downs in various parts of India.

Those who were less affected in the first and second waves and those areas with low levels of vaccine coverage might witness peaks in the coming months, she said. She hopes that the country would achieve vaccines coverage of at least 70% by the end of 2022, and the situation would get normal after that.

Regarding the prevalence of the pandemic in children, she said that parents need not be panic. The serosurvey and data from other countries point out that children could be affected by the virus and might transmit, but would not inflict severe illness.

As per data, a small percentage of them got sick and had inflammatory complications, and few died, considerably fewer numbers than the adult population. But she adds that it is always good to be prepared with paediatric admissions and intensive care units.

When asked about the use of drugs like Remdesivir, HCQ or Ivermectin for treatment, Swaminathan said that there is no evidence that these drugs reduce motility or morbidity in infected people or prevent them from infection. Therefore there are no grounds on which to recommend for either treatment or prevention.

Trials showed Remdesivir might marginally benefit in the subgroup of patients who are ill enough to need oxygen but not ill enough for the ventilator. Drugs like Dexamethasone and Oxygen are essential to save lives, she added.

Regarding clearance to Covaxin, she said a decision would hopefully be made by mid-September. It took longer because of the need for more data from the manufacturing company, Bharat Biotech. A period of four to eight weeks is needed to get all the required data to give clearance for Emergency Use Listing.

According to her, it is impossible to predict the third wave while there are many reasons- scientific, ethical and moral- for not to rush for booster vaccine doses.

On vaccine passports, which allows vaccinated individuals international travel, the WHO does not believe in it since everyone hasn't got an opportunity to get vaccinated, she said. The inequity in getting vaccinated must be ridden off first.