The recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi, driven by Omicron virus variant and its subtypes, has raised apprehensions of a possible rise in cases in Kerala in the coming months. However, health experts feel that COVID-19 has ceased to be a public health threat like it was in 2020-21 and that a rise in case numbers should not be a cause for concern as long as severity of cases or mortality does not go up.
“We should definitely expect COVID-19 cases to go up in Kerala by mid-May but though cases will go up, we do not really expect to see a palpable curve like during the second wave. If the disease is “mild” or not severe, it is very likely that people would not bother testing and hence while the actual case numbers might be high, the true picture may not even be reflected in the official figures and the epidemic curve,” says T.S. Anish, a public health expert and a member of the State’s experts’ committee on COVID-19.
It has been identified that in Delhi, the Omicron variant BA.2.12.1 and eight other subtypes are circulating in the community, driving up case numbers. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been tracking several sister variants of the original Omicron BA.1 (BA.4 and BA.5), BA.2 variants, as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3, there has been little information on its transmissibility or immune escape potential.
