The coronavirus has evolved significantly since it was first traced in late 2019. From being a considerably deadly virus, it has now become less fatal – thanks to the vaccination initiatives and the emergence of Omicron. However, former World Health organisation (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan asserted that ‘we have been lucky that omicron arrived’ but the coronavirus still possesses the ‘element of unpredictability.
Speaking on Omicron, Swaminathan told Indian Express that “We have been lucky that in the last 10 or 11 months, Omicron has evolved. And we’ve had about 300 sub-lineages of Omicron, which we are now tracking. Though a majority of them continue to evolve to be more transmissible, every time you get a new strain, it overtakes the previous one, and you get a fresh wave of infections. But that has not translated into increasing deaths.”
“But in terms of what the virus is going to do next, there is still an element of unpredictability.”And further asserts that “It’s a new virus, it’s still evolving, still adapting. We still need to be cautious”This comment comes at a time when China is seeing a massive surge in new COVID cases. Daily cases of COVID-19 across the country are hitting records, with 32,695 reported Friday. Of those, 1,860 were in Beijing, though the majority of them were asymptomatic.
Last month, the UN health agency reminded us COVID-related emergencies can end soon but it is still here. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic has, “surprised us before and very well may again”.
Though the cases have started declining globally, countries still need to maintain their vigilance and push to get their most vulnerable populations vaccinated. “Although the public perception is that the pandemic is over in some parts of the world, it remains a public health event that continues to adversely and strongly affect the health of the world’s population,” the WHO’s committee said.
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Meanwhile, India’s active covid case tally fell to 5,123, with 291 new coronavirus infections reported in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said in an update on Monday. The country’s total reported cases so far, since the pandemic hit in early 2020, stand at 4.46 crore covid, while death toll at 530,614.
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