IS the Covid-19 pandemic finally on its way out? It seems so. India recorded a negligible 169 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, while the active caseload rose to 2,257. Similarly, there have been far fewer cases in Jammu and Kashmir. India has witnessed a drastic decline in the number of cases. This is despite the fact that China was recently overrun by a major Covid-19 outbreak leading to the deaths of reportedly thousands of people. The sudden surge in infections followed after the country ended its zero-Covid strategy and lifted the sweeping lockdowns following public protests.
That the infections didn’t spread to India shows that the country has developed a certain herd immunity. One of the reasons could be that India experienced a nationwide explosion of infections during the virulent Delta wave in the beginning of 2021. Thousands died as a result. This, together with a successful vaccination programme, may have gone some way to build mass immunity among the people.
However, this is no reason to let our guard down. The virus is now a part of our lives and it has already become endemic. Besides, the new variants of the virus keep triggering fresh outbreaks. More so, in China where recent upsurge in infections is traced to the new Covid variants. Experts have now expressed fear that the virus may mutate its way out of vaccine immunity. Former World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, Swaminathan has called for continued surveillance to avoid another wave that could potentially kill millions of people like Covid-19 did during the second wave that was dominated by the Delta variant of the virus.
But the overall trend remains one of a steep decline in cases. Though there is some cause for optimism here, things could still turn messy if the existing pandemic-related precautions are thrown to the winds. The Omicron wave early last year was gigantic in nature but its fallout was cushioned by the relatively moderate nature of the virus. The continuously mutating sub-variants of the Omicron virus could, however, in time trigger yet another wave. So people have to continue to take care.
Meanwhile, we can celebrate our triumph over the Covid pandemic with the least number of Covid cases and fatalities to date. In Kashmir, there is a greater need for precaution since it is a tourist place. Though the drastic reduction in new cases and fatalities is a heartening development, the situation can stay this way if people continue to be mindful of the virus. The end of the pandemic is also a boon for tourism in the union territory which has witnessed a bumper 2022 with over one crore people visitors. We can’t afford to let this momentum slow down.
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