Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Feb 20: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today said the new variants could lead to a resurgence of the COVID-19 cases.
President DAK Dr Nisar Ul Hassan in a statement issued here said that the new variants could trigger a new wave of Covid-19 that could reignite the pandemic.
“After the UK variant, South African and Brazilian variants have found their way into India,” he said.
“While we struggle to come to grips with the foreign strains, a “new Indian mutant strain” has been found in Maharashtra which is seeing a spike in cases after a two-month lull,” he said.
Dr Nisar said that the new variants are on the move and they can sneak into the valley anytime with Kashmir being the favourite tourist destination, the mutant strains could spread into the region through tourists.
“The variants seem to spread more easily and quickly than other variants which could lead to a surge in new Covid-19 cases,” Dr Nisar said.
“People who have recovered from Covid-19 infection could be re-infected with the new mutated strains of the novel virus.”
He said that the new strains have been found to evade the effects of the existing vaccines that have been developed against the original strain of the novel virus.
“Vaccine trials carried out by Janssen and Novavax too showed a significant drop in efficacy due to the variant,” he said.
He said that the fact of the matter is we are kind of in the dark as we don’t know whether the variants have sneaked in as there is no rigorous genetic surveillance system for tracking the variants.
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