'Only a matter of time' before delta variant arrives in TT, says UWI professor

UWI professor of Molecular Genetics and Virology,

, says TT has not yet recorded an incidence of the delta variant of covid19 but it was “only a matter of time.” In fact, she said it could be here but not yet detected

During the Health Ministry’s virtual press conference on Saturday, she said not all covid19 samples were tested for variants. She explained not all infected people agreed to give a sample, there were asymptomatic people who were not aware they were sick, and not all samples were suitable for sequencing.

“Unless we screen every single person in Trinidad you’re not going to detect the first case of the Delta variant in Trinidad. There is a bit of a lag time between detection and when a virus arrives in a country. And that is not peculiar to Trinidad and Tobago.”

She said the delta variant spread more quickly than others because the time between a person being exposed and them being able to infect others was short. Also the levels of Delta variant in the body got higher than the original virus or the other variants.

“If you get infected with SARS-CoV-2 (covid19), whether it’s a variant or not, your body’s immune system fights back. But, very importantly, it takes time for your immune system to work out the weaknesses of the virus and to produce the right tools to fight the virus. And during that time the virus can get the upper hand and, as we know, all too often the virus wins that battle resulting in severe disease, hospitalisation and sadly, in some cases, death.”

Vaccines presented the immune system with something that looks like the virus and so trains it, allowing it time to prepare antibodies, T-cells and B-cells in advance for when the virus was introduced to the body.

The covid19 vaccines were developed for the original virus. Since variants look slightly different, it could allow some variants to “partially evade” vaccine-induced immunity. However, the vaccines would work “well enough,” reducing the risk of severe disease, hospitalisation and death. Vaccines also reduce the chance of spreading the virus to others.

For example, she said recent “real world” data suggested Sinopharm was effective against the Alpha or UK variant, as well as the delta or Indian variant.

The study said 95 per cent of participants developed antibodies against covid19 in people with and without comorbidities, while 81 per cent developed antibodies that blocked people from getting infected, which was the same level as people who were infected naturally.

Also, over 85 per cent had antibodies that could recognise the protein that allowed the virus to get into cells and block the original virus as well as the alpha and delta variants.

“The performance against the variant from South Africa was not as good but still at a level that you would expect to get protection.”

She added that the levels of antibodies against variants were lower than the original virus but comparable to natural infection.