India may be entering endemic stage of COVID

According to Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, COVID-19 in India may be entering the stage of endemicity where low or moderate level of transmission will go on.

On the clearance of India’s homegrown COVID-19 vaccine ‘COVAXIN’, she was confident that the technical team of WHO will be satisfied to give clearance to be its authorized vaccines.

Chief Scientist noted that, due to size, heterogeneity of population and immunity status across the country, it is feasible that this situation in India may continue with ups and downs in various parts of India. India may be entering the stage of endemicity where moderate or low level of transmission will continue to happen however, no exponential growth or peaks will be there.

On the issue of prevalence of COVID-19 among children, she notes that, according to Sero Survey, it is possible that children can get infected and transmit. But they will be having mild illness most of the time. Very small percentage will get sick & inflammatory complications and few will die. But the number will be much less than the adult population.

On the topic of using drugs like HCQ, Remdesivir or Ivermectin, she notes that, as of now there are no evidence of role of Ivermectin or HCQ in reducing mortality or morbidity in people infected with the COVID-19 virus. These drugs also have no role in preventing the infection.