Covid-19 variants will keep on emerging, nothing to panic about: Dr NK Arora

New Delhi, April 11: New Covid-19 variants will keep coming, however, they are not causing severe diseases or increasing the number of cases said Dr NK Arora, the chairman of the Covid-19 working group of India, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI). During an interview, Dr Arora stated that " variants will keep coming but at the moment these aren't causing severe disease or increase in the number of cases." "So, I would like to tell people that these variants will keep on occurring. There is nothing to panic about. Because there is none of the variants is causing severe disease at the moment as per the facts and figures are given by the Indian data," he said; adding, "Second is that whether any of these patients or their contacts had more severe disease, that is also not true." Speaking on the new XE variant cases reported in Maharashtra and Gujarat, Dr Arora stated, "Currently whatever has been described from India XE variant, it is only by the first layer of testing. So, one is having less confidence whether it is XE or whether it is anything else in the initial XE variant which was described from one of the states." Also Read | Clash between JNU student groups over non-veg food on Ram Navami, several injured "Subsequently, it was found that it is either XM or XJ, not XE. So, it just shows that these variants with just one test it's very difficult and particularly when new variants are coming," he continued. Dr Arora went on to say that three layers of testing are required and INSACOG is closely monitoring, "So, what is happening in India wherever XE has been reported after first testing, whether it is Gujarat or Maharashtra the local testing has not shown any undue increase in the number of cases in those areas are in the contacts of the people, where this virus was circulated. So, the first concern that if a new sub-variant of Omicron is described, whether it is growing more rapidly, we are very closely following and INSACOG have so far not found anything, which is of concern." Also Read | India logs 861 new Covid-19 cases, 6 deaths in 24 hours -PTC News