On Simplified this week, Professor Aoife McLysaght joins iRadio in the Afternoon to explain more about the Indian variant of coronavirus.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)Over the last few months we have been hearing a lot about different variants of COVID-19, including ones first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.
The latest variant of concern is B.1617.2, which is a variant that was first identified in India.
Cases of it have been detected in Ireland, but at the moment it is causing more concern in the UK.
On this week's Simplified on iRadio in the Afternoon, Professor Aoife McLysaght gives an explainer, starting off by outlining what a variant means:
"A variant is a genetically different, slightly different version of the same virus. The word 'variant' just implies a certain amount of difference, but not too much.
"Then the next thing that people talk about is a variant of concern, and that is, of those variants, some of them can be worrying. And a variant might be of concern for three possible reasons...that it is more transmissible, that it results in a worse disease outcome [or] that the vaccines are less effective against it."
Aoife says the one that is currently getting the most attention is B.1617.2, which is the variant first identified in India.
"The concern around that is that it looks like it might be more transmissible than even B.1.1.7 [the variant that was first identified in the UK].
How to handle the Indian variant
Professor McLysaght has spoken about the importance of doing everything possible to keep this variant from spreading around the country.
"At the moment, we don't have significant amount of this so-called Indian variant in Ireland, but if we just imagine for the moment that it's not out of control in Ireland, then the thing we need to do is avoid letting it come in. That's where the quarantine system can be very effectively deployed.
"We should be ramping up and keeping resourcing the public health doctors, and do everything we can to avoid importing these new variants of concern. And then, our domestic plans can be relatively undisturbed."
Meanwhile, as we look forward to the next announcement on further easing of restrictions, Professor McLysaght has sounded a note of caution about any return of indoor dining.
"I think talking about indoor dining is not necessarily wise in any case. That's because we know that indoor situations are just so much worse for transmission, and we still do have quite high case numbers.
"Professor Orla Hegarty in UCD has been very consistent in talking about the importance of ventilation, and how just saying pubs can open or gyms can open doesn't make sense. What you should say is premises that can meet a certain code, a certain standard, then those ones could open."
You can listen to the full piece here:
