Know What Odisha Health Director Says About WHO Statement On New COVID Variants

Bhubaneswar: The state government is prepared to take necessary precautionary measures as and when the new variant of coronavirus will be detected, said Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra.

Speaking to the media persons, here on Thursday, Mohapatra said if there is a virus, it will definitely have a variant. But it is too early early to say about the outbreak of the new variants as told by the World Health Organisation (WHO), he added.

Besides, Mohapatra said, the WHO has not come forward with any facts and figures. It has not clarified or confirmed the nature and degree of the new variants. Whether it will be a positive or negative variant and what will be its threat potentiality to health condition of the people have also not been revealed, he added.

The director said whenever any evidence of the new variant will come to light, the government will take precautionary measures as it has been doing so far.

On the present status of Omicron variant, he said the admission rate of patients in ICU or on ventilator support will reveal that it has not spread as alarmingly as anticipated. As of now, there are around 70 patients on ventilator support.

“We think the variant has reached the peak stage. Normally, infection takes 4 to 6 weeks to subside after this stage and we expect the things to normalise after that period,” he said.

It may be noted that a top WHO official has warned that the Omicron will not be the last one and the possibility of other new variants is really high.

During a question and answer session live-streamed on WHO’s social media platforms on Tuesday, the WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove said the global health agency is tracking four different versions of Omicron, a national news agency reported.

“We know a lot about this virus, but we don’t know everything. And quite frankly, the variants are the wild card. So we are tracking this virus in real time as it mutates as it changes…But this virus has a lot of room to move,” she said.