New Delhi: Dr, Randeep Guleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has said that the delta variant of coronavirus may affect the efficacy of the vaccines available in India, but is still effective against the variant. People may get infected by the virus after vaccination but the aim of the medical community is to prevent death and serious illness, said Guleria in an interview given to News 18.
“Currently, the cases are few. It doesn’t seem to be a major cause of concern. As far as delta variant is concerned, it is a variant which is more infectious, it is spreading rapidly. It is now taking over from where there was the alpha variant. Delta variant has become a variant of concern because it is spreading rapidly at a global level,” said Dr.Guleria.
Also Read: COVID related deaths may be 9 times higher than the official count
When questioned about the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, despite the rapid vaccination program in the United Kingdom, Dr. Guleria responded, “We are always saying that vaccination has its limitation in terms of infection. I think we need to again understand what is the protection that the vaccine gives. To a large extent, the vaccine will definitely protect you from severe disease, in terms of hospitalisation or death. But the vaccine may not protect you that much from the infection. You may still get the COVID-19 infection but it may be milder or you may be asymptomatic and you will recover quickly because you have antibodies in your blood. You may be infected and may spread it to others but the virus will not multiply to the extent that it will cause a severe damage to your body.”
Regarding the possibility of a third wave of Covid-19 affecting India, the AIIMS director said, “A lot depends on our behaviour. If we are able to avoid crowds, super spreader events and carry out aggressive surveillance, containment measures and vaccination, the third wave may not be very large and may be delayed. It depends on how we behave in the next few months.”
Post Your Comments