Bringing some relief and hope, Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw in her latest statement has asserted that the highly transmissible Omicron is not the last COVID-19 variant and we need to brace ourselves for many more. "We need to brace ourselves for many variants, Omicron is not the last," she said.
Shaw went on to say that the Omicron variant is surging fast but it also descends quickly, and lesser hospitalisation, lesser occupation of ICU beds are a huge relief. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said that the hospitals are more prepared this time around. "We are veering towards an Endemic situation. Delta also should not be a huge worry, we know how to deal with it now," Shaw said.
Biocon Chairperson also suggested speeding up pediatric trials and ramping up genomic sequencing. "It is important that we need to look at vaccinating children sooner or later," Shaw said. "I also believe that we need to ramp up our genomic sequencing, which I think needs to be opened up to the private sector as well," she added.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said he was confident and optimistic that the pandemic will end in 2022, only 'if we end inequity' together. Professor Manindra Agarwal of IIT Kanpur has said that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic will end by April.
On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that the Omicron variant is very mild and is similar to viral fever infections and urged the residents of the state not to panic.
