NEW variants of the Omicron strain have fuelled a massive surge in Covid infections in China. The nation, which gave up its zero Covid strategy early this, reported seven deaths in the last two days due to the virus., Chinese cities are currently hit by the highly transmissible Omicron strains. Other countries which are witnessing largescale outbreaks of Coronavirus are Japan, United States of America, Republic of Korea, and Brazil. Globally. Around 35 lakh fresh cases are reported weekly. The situation, however, is more serious in China where crematoriums are struggling to deal with an influx of bodies.
This has also alarmed India forcing the Centre on Tuesday to urge all states and union territories to increase genome sequencing of Covid-positive samples to enable the timely detection of newer variants if circulating in the country. The union government has called for early detection, isolation, testing, and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. It has unveiled a five-fold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour to restrict the transmission of the coronavirus.
Since the outbreak in China is likely to lead to further mutations, and given the size of China’s economy, the United States has warned the rest of the world should be concerned about it. And there is an urgent need for the world and the individual countries to get serious about the challenge. However, India has a reason to be happy about the fresh Covid numbers: The country recorded 112 new Covid cases on December 20 and active cases fell to 3,490, according to Health Ministry data. This shows that the pandemic is on its way out in the country. But the example of China has come as a warning that the virus is very much among us. And if we continue to ignore observing the SOP,, the pandemic could once again blow up in our face, just like it did in January-February 2021, killing thousands of people.
The continuously mutating sub-variants of the Omicron virus could in time trigger yet another wave. So people have to continue to take care. It is too soon to abandon the masks or give up the use of sanitizers. The SOP remains as relevant as it did when the pandemic broke out in early 2020. Meanwhile, we can celebrate our triumph on the Covid pandemic with the least number of Covid cases and fatalities to date. In Kashmir too, the drastic reduction in Covid cases is a cause for celebration. It is also a boon for tourism which has witnessed a bumper year so far with over one crore people visiting the union territory. But at the same time, we can’t afford to let our guard down.
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