Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 3: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today warned of higher rates of reinfections due to the new variant in persons who have recovered from Covid-19 infection.
In a statement here, DAK president Dr Nisar ul Hassan said that the risk of reinfection from the Omicron is higher than for any previous variants.
Quoting a new study published in the preprint server medRxiv on Thursday, he said the Omicron variant is three times more likely to cause reinfection compared to the Delta variant.
He said the study was based on data collected through South Africa’s health system on about 2.8 million confirmed coronavirus infections between March 2020 and 27 November 2021 including 35,670 suspected reinfections.
“The authors detected a significant increase in reinfections since the first known case of omicron,” he said adding the reinfection risk profile of omicron was substantially higher than that associated with the beta and delta variants during the second and third waves.
Dr Nisar said that the study provides the first epidemiological evidence for Omicron ability to evade immunity from prior infection.
He said while those who had Covid-19 could get sick again with the new variant, the vaccine still appears to offer protection against severe disease.
“People who are unvaccinated should get the vaccine and those who have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccine should get the booster shot,” he added.
General Secretary DAK Dr Arshad Ali said booster doses would help broaden an individual’s immune response against different variants of Covid. “The higher levels of antibodies could keep the new variant at bay,” he said.
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