Omicron variants B4, B5 ‘friendly’ towards Indians

Mumbai: Even as the number of nCoV-positive patients in Mumbai has crossed the 1,000- mark, citizens can take heart from the fact that the Omicron variants (including strains B4 and B5) have not affected Indian citizens much.

Confirming this, dean of the JJ Group of Hospitals Dr Pallavi Saple told First India, “Indians appear to have developed (herd) immunity to the Omicron strain of COVID-19. This seems to be one of the main reasons why we are not receiving more patients suffering from severe illnesses or even those requiring ventilator support. This is certainly heartening.”

Incidentally, Dr Saple is credited with the first major success against the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020 that became renowned as the ‘Sangli model’. She brought the district down from critical status to zero COVID-19 cases. Explaining about herd immunity, Dr Saple said, “If you remember the third wave began between November and December of 2021, picking up steam around January and February 2022. We feel that the early patients may have dropped their antibodies to some extent and so became prone to infection symptoms, which is why they are testing positive now. However, even they are partially immune to the strains. In JJ Group of hospitals, there were 12 nCoV-positive patients reported as on Wednesday and none of them required either Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities or ventilators.”

Latest reports from Pune indicated two new strains--B4 and B5--were both Omicron variants to which Indian patients seem to exhibit the same immunity. They did not require hospitalization, she noted.

Interestingly, this immune response was witnessed even during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malegaon, which had flummoxed medical professionals. Interestingly, Dr Saple had been deputed to tackle the virus in Ahmednagar and then Dhulia (that covered Malegaon as well) after her success in Sangli.