Lower number of hospitalisations and occupation of ICU beds amid an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 infections is a “huge relief”, Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview on January 3.
On the Omicron variant, Mazumdar-Shaw said the variant is “surging fast, but also descends quickly”, adding: “We need to brace ourselves for many variants, Omicron is not the last.”
She added that hospitals are “more prepared this time and we are veering towards an endemic situation” and that Delta “should also not be a huge worry” as we now know how to deal with it.
Her statements came as COVID-19 cases are rising and as the Centre launched vaccinations for 15-17 year-olds in the country.
How does a vaccine work?
A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.
How many types of vaccines are there?
What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?
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“It is important that we need to look at vaccinating children sooner or later. So we need to speed up pediatric trials as soon as possible and start taking rolling reviews on the vaccination trials for children below the age of 15,” Mazumdar-Shaw added.
She also noted that the private can help better deploy the new vaccines that have been approved, adding that they should also be given access to genome sequencing.
