Bhubaneswar third wave variant causing surge of Covid infections: Institute of Life Sciences

BHUBANESWAR: Amid apprehension that a new sub-variant of Omicron was causing a sudden spike in Covid-19 infections in the state, the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) on Monday clarified that it is the same BA.2 variant that triggered the third wave.
ILS director Ajay Parida said the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron (that are behind the spread of infections in Pune) have been detected in Odisha but they constitute only 4% of the daily infections. The dominant variant is still BA.2, he added.
Health experts said the same variant was causing reinfections as it has been found that those who obtained humoral antibody (that happens post-infection) in third wave due to Omicron are also getting infected now.
“Many people, who contracted the virus (Omicron) in the third wave are getting re-infected as the Omicron-triggered antibody got exhausted in three months. However, the clinical manifestations are as good as that of the previous infection,” said Dr Manoj Sahu, senior gastroenterologist.
“In time, a new dominant variant (other than BA.2) may emerge to cause more infections. People should keep wearing masks as they were doing earlier. If we remain without masks, infection irrespective of variant will spread faster,” Sahu added.