oppn parties The 'End Game' Of The Pandemic Is Not Playing Out, Yet

News Snippets

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  • India's South-West coast to be hit by very severe Cyclone Biparjoy which will intensify in the next 36 hours
  • PM Modi pays tributes to Birsa Munda on his death anniversary
  • CBI forms SIT to probe violence in Manipur
  • Coal mine collapses in Dhanbad, three dead and scores feared trapped
  • Death threats for Sharad Pawar & Sanjay Raut, probe ordered and security tightened
  • Akhilesh Yadav says law & order situation is out of control in UP
  • Diesel (8.22 million tonnes), petrol (3.35 million tonnes) consumption hits a new high in May
  • Congress' Kamal Nath Sandesh Yatra will begin in Madhya Pradesh on June 15
  • Congress rubbishes reports of Sachin Pilot starting a new outfit, says they are just rumours
  • Delhi Police take women wrestler who had complained against WFI chief B B S Singh to federation office
  • IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar says government will regulate the AI space to keep digital citizens safe
  • Stocks turn negative on Friday: Sensex loses 223 points to 62625 and Nifty 71 points to 18563
  • WTC final: If India can keep the Aussie lead to below 400, they can still make a match of it
  • WTC final: Indian bowlers get their act right in the second innings but Aussies race to a lead of nearly 300 for the loss of 4 wickets
Fresh flare-up in Manipur as 3 persons were shot dead in a Kuki village inKangpopki district
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The 'End Game' Of The Pandemic Is Not Playing Out, Yet

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-01-24 16:45:54

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a timely warning for governments and people not to believe that the pandemic has played out its course and is ending. It has said that in nine weeks it has received reports of 80 million cases worldwide, more than the whole of 2021. It also said that since there were so many cases in such a short period, there are huge chances that more variants might emerge and talks of 'end game' due to Omicron are not justified.

This is a correct assessment. Although India is witnessing a fall in cases now, the very fact that more than 3 lakh cases are being reported daily for the last few days means that community transmission has set in. Community transmission affords the virus a chance to mutate further. In any case, Omicron has numerous spike protein mutations and it has the potential of infecting a large number of people, up to 5/6 times more than Delta and it has not run its course in India. 

Hence, to assume that the high number of infections in Omicron will lead to herd immunity and result in 'end game' for the virus is dangerous, as WHO has warned. It has been seen that the Covid virus mutates and breaks the vaccine shield. Although the repeated infections, especially in those fully vaccinated, are not life threatening, they can still lead to large scale infections and thus put a lot of pressure on the health infrastructure of the country.

It is seen that a kind of virus fatigue is setting in. People have begun to think that since the virus is not being stopped by vaccines and people are getting infected multiple times, there is no way to stop it. Hence, they have begun to lower the guard and are becoming reckless. This is not good. Now is not the time to relax. India is still reporting more than 3 lakh cases daily. If cases have started falling in major cities, they can start to rise again if people do not follow Covid protocols. New variants can emerge if caution is thrown to the winds. The fight against Covid is not over yet.