Much ado about nothing, says virologist Dr T Jacob John

CHENNAI: The Union government planning to undertake random tests of passengers arriving in India from Covid-affected countries due to the virulence of the BF7 variant has stumped government doctors and virologists.

They’re non-plussed over the source of such totally irrelevant data, sources revealed.

Noted virologist Dr T Jacob John opined: “I do not know from where the mainline press got its information that the BF.7 is a sub-variant of the DA5 variant, which gives no cause for worry. In all countries including China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, cases have been going down.”

With reference to China, he pointed out that the sudden burst of information about vast portions of the Chinese population likely to be affected “has totally stumped us virologists across the country. China’s official figures are one death per 1,000 cases. The variant is a mild strain and non-lethal. It does not result in hypoxia or pneumonia”.

Dr Banumathi, deputy director of health services, Vellore, concurred and added that she had not yet received any instructions from the government on COVID-related action.

However, at least one town panchayat (Chetpet) in Tiruvannamalai district started distributing Kabasura Kudineer as a precautionary measure on Thursday. There were no such indications in Vellore corporation.