‘Best time to catch Covid’, be prepared, says India’s top scientist, replies to concerns about fourth wave as well

NEW DELHI: Although India’s overall Covid-19 cases remain low, cases are reportedly rising in the schools of Delhi and other cities. However, India’s top biomedical scientist Dr Gagandeep Kang has said that the best time to get a Covid infection is when you are a healthy child.

“Basically, children who are infected do not manifest with symptoms in the majority. Recent surveys indicate 80 percent children have already been infected”, Gagandeep said. “We should not expect protection from the infection. As the virus evolves, it is going to infect us again and again, particularly children. So the parents should be looking at the number of children who were detected to have infection”, she said. However, those numbers are very few. The children who need hospitalization have co-morbidities of some kind or the other, she added.

It is not known whether the XE variant is driving the rise in cases. It could result in respiratory tract infection. It may cause fever, restlessness, but not the kind of severe disease that put people to hospitals, she said. The gradual rise in cases cannot be yet called the onset of a fourth wave. People should be prepared for re-infections, whether they have been infected before or vaccinated, she added.