'Covid-19 shaping up like common cold, but be cautious,' advises NTAGI chief Dr NK Arora

The government's COVID-19 working group head, Dr. N.K. Arora, of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), claimed that the virus is beginning to resemble typical influenza. His remarks were given in an interview when 1,276 Indians had passed away from COVID-19 in the previous 28 days, per the Johns Hopkins tracker.

Arora adds that India is approaching a point where people can resume their regular routines. According to Arora, people who have not taken the booster dose account for more than 75% of hospitalizations for COVID. He announced the release of the nasal vaccine from Bharat Biotech and the mRNA vaccine from Gennova Pharma.

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In March, there were about 1,000 COVID-19 cases every day, and in June and July, that number grew progressively to 15,000 to 20,000. Once more, cases have started to decrease during the past three weeks. As a result, it is difficult to identify the exact reason why the number of infections fluctuates, although there are several scientific elements that may be at play.

First, when there is an upsurge in community travel, or when there is a religious social event or any major political assembly, illness spreads more quickly. Second, various Omicron starins, some of which are more contagious and communicable. The third factor is that the testing rate has significantly decreased during the past eight months.

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In November and December, we tested 1.5 to 2 million people every day. We now only test 200,000 to 400,000 people per day since we are no longer doing contact tracing because the COVID is so mild. It has symptoms similar to a typical cold, including fever, possible throat symptoms, and body aches that go away in 3 to 5 days.

Many people avoid getting tested for themselves. Other viruses are present at the same time. One is unsure if the sickness is caused by the influenza virus or COVID. Overall, rather than looking at the reported occurrences as absolute numbers, it is important to consider the community's trend.

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Fortunately, the severity connected to the Omicron or current Covid version has been happening only in people with significant co-morbidities, including chronic heart illness, kidney disease, cancer, lung disease, etc., who are hospitalised and dying from a COVID infection.

They are therefore admitted to the hospital for their primary illness and unintentionally found to also have COVID. Since severe sickness caused by COVID is relatively uncommon, severe disease can happen, especially in people with existing diseases. There should be no carelessness because it could escalate to be quite serious. We need to exercise caution since COVID is all around us.

India is working on a wide range of innovative COVID vaccines. As soon as the necessary information is obtained, these mRNA vaccines and intranasal vaccinations may require a precautionary dosage of heterologous material.