Leading Indian microbiologist Dr Rajesh N Sharan
Leading Indian microbiologist Dr Rajesh N Sharan

Leading microbiologist Dr Rajesh N Sharan has warned the Meghalaya government to not become complacent even though it has tackled the COVID-19 crisis well so far.

Speaking about the seriousness of the virus, he said, โ€œThis is a new virus and it may remain asymptomatic in a person beyond two weeks.โ€

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โ€œWithin this two weeks the virus is expected to manifest. It must be understood that an asymptomatic patient is as dangerous as the symptomatic patient,โ€ he added.

โ€œOne needs to strictly adhere to the global health guidelines to control and break the spread of the virus,โ€ further added Dr Sharan, who works at the Molecular Biology at Department of Biochemistry of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU).

He further said that as the virus threatens the well-being of the weaker sections of the society more, hence one needs to care for this section more.

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Dr Sharan, while speaking on Meghalaya governmentโ€™s inability to trace the COVID-19 source that has killed one person so far, said, โ€œThe source is something else and is the most likely somewhere else.โ€

โ€œWe need to have solid scientific evidence for it,โ€ he added.

Advocating further for antibody screening for COVID-19, Dr Sharan said that compared to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), antibody screening is very quick and much less technical.

On plasma therapy for treating COVID-19, Dr Sharan said, โ€œThe blood plasma of COVID-19 recovered person is likely to be rich in the antibody against the virus.โ€

โ€œAnd if this enriched plasma can be transfused to a COVID-19 infected person, the latter person will get a booster of antibody that is present in plasma,โ€ he added.

Raymond Kharmujai is a Shillong based journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]