Thiruvananthapuram, October 17 (BPNS)
The state health department has sounded a high alert against the new Covid-19 subvariants which are driving cases abroad. The alert has been issued against XBB and XBB.1. According to health minister Veena George, respective districts were asked to heighten their surveillance as those countries which reported the said subvariants are dealing with a fresh wave of infections. At the same time, a meeting chaired by the minister to analyze the Covid situation in the state assessed that the transmission is under control. The state on Monday recorded 289 fresh cases.
“Of the subvariants reported so far, these are the most contagious. Of those who got infected by these, around 1.8 percent had to seek hospital admission,” said Veena.
At the same time, she added that as of now there is no need to panic in the state.
“The key is to follow Covid appropriate behavior including wearing facemasks and washing one’s hands. The Covid situation in the state is now under control. The daily cases being reported are below 1000. But that doesn’t mean that we could lower our guards,” added Veena.
At the same time, the assessment meeting that convened here decided to send more samples for genome sequencing. It also decided to monitor hospital admission cases, bed occupancy, and ICU admissions.
“Everyone should take precautionary doses. Especially the aged ones and immunocompromised ones. Once they get infected the outcome will be fatal. Influenza cases will also be monitored,” said a health official.
The Omicron XBB subvariant was first detected in August 2022 in India and has since been detected in more than 17 countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Japan, and the US.
While observations from countries where XBB has been reported suggest that it is at least as transmissible as currently circulating variants, there is no evidence that XBB causes more severe illness.
According to the Singapore Health Ministry, XBB is now the predominant subvariant circulating in the community, accounting for 54% of local cases during the week of 3 to 9 October, from 22% the previous week. It also highlighted that there is evidence that XBB may be driving an increase in reinfections.
“Given that immunity from natural infection in the population is likely waning over time, this underscores the importance of ensuring minimum protection from vaccination and keeping our vaccinations up to date to protect us against severe infections,” the ministry reminded.
XBB, a recombinant lineage between two Omicron sublineages, BJ.1 and BA.2.75, has emerged as the most prominent. This lineage along with its sublineage is largely found in Singapore and now in Bangladesh, though also found across Europe, North America, and Asia.
According to experts, recombinant variants of viruses are generated when two or more viruses co-infect a cell at the same time. Though chances for co-infection are rare, it might occur. Genomic surveillance can efficiently pick up such recombinant isolates.
The problem with XBB is that it could be one of the most antibody-evasive variants. As an expert points out, “XBB is significantly more immune evasive than BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1 against plasma from all breakthrough infections, comparable to or even exceeding SARS-CoV-1 level escaping capability. BR.2, BM.1.1.1, and CA.1 also exhibit very strong immune evasion, but less compared to XBB.”
The variant can evade a wide spectrum of monoclonal antibodies and antibodies raised by vaccination, infection, or combinations.
According to Vinod Scaria of the Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, “The ability of XBB to evade a wide spectrum of neutralizing antibodies would suggest it could over-power all of the previous variants.”
The problem, as being pointed out by global health experts is that all possible vaccines, whether mRNA, whole vector viron, or even sub-unit DNA vaccines created around the world are only working against the previous variants, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Omicron, Deltacron, and Omicron sub lineages. Thus the vaccines in circulation might not come effective against these mutations thus making it perhaps the newest threat in covid mutations to watch out for.
