After coronavirus surge in China and Europe, can India let its guard down?

While India is planning to get rid of all the Covid-19 restrictions from March 31, one should not forget that other countries like China, the United States and other South Asian countries have seen a massive rise in coronavirus cases. In the past also, while these countries were peaking with covid cases, India was covid free and when these countries started seeing a decline in coronavirus cases, it was in fact India that began witnessing a rise on the other hand. 

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Also, let’s not forget the study conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur that suggests India being hit by the Covid-19 fourth wave in June 2022. 

Even though India isn’t recording significant covid cases, as per the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the prevalence of Omicron sub-lineage BA.2 is gradually increasing in India. Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, NCDC said, “Earlier, the BA.1 variant was dominant among the samples collected from the travellers. Now in community settings, we have found that the BA.2 sub-variant is gradually increasing.”

Another virologist Dr T Jacob John suggested that the surge Covid-19 cases might not take place unless there comes along a new variant that we have not known earlier.  At the same time, he also suggested that one should not let their guard down regarding the virus. 

Doctors are hoping that the fourth wave won’t be bad since most of the population has been vaccinated and have acquired protective immunity.