Don’t expect COVID XE variant to result in a major surge: Dr Anurag Agarwal from Ashoka University

He said, "As of now, there is no clinical evidence that any one of them is more dangerous per se than the other, BA.2 spreads a bit faster than the others- we know that for sure. So as of now, let us say that there is no particular reason to think of them as anything very different from the general Omicron infections."

"XE is a recombinant between BA.1 and BA.2; BA.2 being more transmissible, so it has faster transmission than the other Omicron variants. But India, for example, already having been through BA.2 as a dominant variant during the Omicron wave, I don't see XE causing a major surge in India. It can, of course, cause bumps and rises, but not an immediate surge in my opinion," he explained.

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Agarwal urged the elderly citizens and those with comorbidities to opt for the third doze of vaccine.

He added, "The way I see it, all elderly, all healthcare workers, all high exposure people and at least the 40 plus with comorbidities, I would argue that most 40 plus probably should go in for the third dose. I do wish that we have more options for the third dose which takes into account newer evidence."

According to him, low natural immunity is the reason why some of the countries are seeing a surge in Omicron cases.

Agarwal said, "Other countries are going through Omicron that we went through in January, they started with a lower level of natural immunity because they didn't have as severe a Delta wave as we did.

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On China’s zero COVID policy, he said that it works only if there is extensive vaccination. He further mentioned that China’s level of constraints are difficult for most countries to follow.

He added, "I would say zero-COVID policy only works if you have extensive vaccination going on side by side. Good examples would be Australia and New Zealand. They tried a zero-COVID policy but they vaccinated very high fraction of their population. So when the zero-COVID policy breaks down like with Omicron wave, then the number of deaths and hospitalizations is very low."

"Hong Kong followed a zero-COVID policy without adequate vaccination of the elderly, which is why it suffered. China is a mystery to all of us as to what exactly they have done. But the fact is - they have not abandoned and they use a level of constraints that most other countries would find difficult to do," he explained.

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