Increase sample testing, speed up booster dose drive: Health experts

Experts blame the rise in COVID cases to public negligence and poor booster dose coverage across the State. As the positivity rate is nearing 10% in some districts, and those neighbouring Chennai have been witnessing a surge in cases, public health experts also emphasise on the need to increase the number of samples sent for testing.

“We’re in the endemic phase of the pandemic, and the most prevalent are the BA4 and BA5 sub-variants of Omicron. Over the past few months, people have become negligent. They think mask is not required. We have 95% dual vaccine coverage, but there are only 5% people who’ve taken booster dose. This is bad,” says senior virologist Dr Jacob John.

Experts say that most samples are Omicron cases, and the test positivity rate (TPR) is increasing in the city.

Dr Saranya Narayan, technical director-chief microbiologist, Neuberg Diagnostics, said, “We’re seeing far more of Omicron samples now in Chennai. Now we’re at 11% TPR at our laboratory here. We see some samples in clusters from one family or locality, about 40%, rest are spread across the city.”

However, scientists also say that the

BA4 and BA5 sub-variants of Omicron cannot be undermined, as the same variant has proven risky in other countries and natural immunity has a major role.

“The same variant caused 400 deaths in South Korea and a few more fatalities in other countries, but it doesn’t have such severity in India. We cannot attribute it to vaccinations either because South Korea and Singapore had good coverage,” says public health and infectious diseases expert Dr K Sanjay Rai. “We’ve good sero positivity among the people and those recovered are also protected against the infection. Though vaccination is reducing the risk of infection and severity, the sero positivity plays a very significant role.”