Visakhapatnam: ‘New variants of Covid-19 fitter and transmittable’

VISAKHAPATNAM: New variants of Covid-19 are evolving to become fitter and transmittable, said Dr Paul Kelly, consultant, infectious diseases and medical director, BronxCare Centre for Travel Medicine. Andhra Medical College (AMC) conducted a webinar on ‘Covid-19 Variants: An Update’ on Sunday.

Participating as the distinguished speaker, Dr Kelly spoke about the Delta, Delta plus, Lambda and other variants of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Dr Kelly explained the major concerns with the new variants such as increased transmissibility, virulence, severity of illness and vaccine efficacy. “According to World Health Organisation, the Delta variant is fastest and fittest. The Delta variant also doubles the risk of hospitalisation,” said Dr Kelly.

“Compared to the earlier pandemics, I think this (Covid-19) is quite different. The virus mutates so quickly and so much. I think unfortunately we are going to see more waves,” said Dr Kelly.

Dr Sridhar Chilimuri, physician-in-chief and chairman, department of medicine, BronxCare Hospital Center, New York, acted as the moderator of the sessions.

In reply to a question by AMC principal Dr PV Sudhakar on genome sequencing for new variants, Dr Kelly said it was better to conduct genome sequencing of samples of people with a second infection and those infected after the first dose of vaccine.