Hyderabad, Aug 5 (FN Representative) A new challenge is being posed by the increase in the number of cases of vaccine breakthrough infection (occurring in an individual who is fully vaccinated) and reinfection (a Covid-recovered person getting infected again), said Dr. Naresh Purohit, Advisor to National Immunisation Programme. India’s daily caseload has mostly been in excess of 40,000 in the past week , Dr Purohit told UNI after addressing a webinar on “Threat posed by Covid Resurgence” organised by Warangal based Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) here.
The National Centre for Disease Control recently has changed its testing guidelines for the double-dose vaccinated, and made it mandatory for them too to be tested, if exposed to Covid-19, he said people, who are fully vaccinated should be extra mindful of not just breakthrough infections and transmission of infection, but also know that vaccinated people could play a key role in transmission, Acclaimed Epidemiologist Dr Purohit averred , it’s worrying that the reproductive number (R-value), which indicates how fast Covid-19 is spreading, has risen above 1 in eight states and UTs — Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Mizoram and Puducherry.
These states/UTs are scattered across the length and breadth of the country, implying that the virus continues to be practically everywhere. This trend suggests that the second wave is not over yet and the third surge might strike sooner than later, he said. The WHO has reported an 80 per cent rise in Delta cases over the past 4 weeks in five of its six health regions and the fast-spreading variant has now reached 132 countries, said Dr Purohit.. Experts in the webinar said that in the US, UK-Scotland, Australia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Canada, the R0 (reproducibility score) has been found to be 8 or more, an indication of higher severity of the disease. and two-third of these new Delta infections are occurring in vaccinated people with similar ease as unvaccinated persons if they got exposed to infected persons without wearing a mask and maintaining a 6-foot physical distance. “There is an urgent need to modify vaccines to tackle the Delta variants and it is almost certain that booster doses or annual vaccination will be required” opined the experts.