The new strain or mutations of Covid-19 that would spread faster has arrived in India. With the Union Health ministry confirming its presence in eight persons who arrived from the UK at various airports in recent days, a safe guess is this might already be spreading here from the loads of returnees in recent weeks. Its spread being faster, a heightened alert is called for. This arrives at a time when the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic was thought to be over for us.
Notably, the strain was first detected in the UK in September. A count for the past couple weeks here alone showed over 33,000 people have returned to the country from the UK. This, at a time when the Christmas and year-end revelry season had just set in. Stretching the scene back to September could mean larger numbers are already here. By the time India alerted itself, many might already have reached here and transmitted the virus to their local contacts. Also, the new strain is now detected in several European nations and Japan. The UK was just a start. The same strain appears to have had some two dozen mutations. Doctors here say the virus might have done local mutations here too, as such viruses do.
Extreme caution and a three-week shutdown at the start of the Covid-19 spread in India since March did not help much in checking the spread. India emerged as the worst-hit nation after the US in the number of infections. Now Russia confirms it faced the third worst scenario in terms of deaths. Brazil and several European nations were hard-hit and the global economy is down in the dumps.
On the positive side, we have learned to live with this virus. The confidence levels of both governments and the general public have risen. The virus from China is not as deadly as it was thought to be, though several prominent names also paid with their lives as they were infected. Scientists say the vaccines currently under production will suffice in handling the new strains/mutations too; and that, if need be, modified vaccines can be introduced in a matter of six weeks. This offers some relief.
Notably, the scare of the new strain emerged just as four states have started a dry run a day ago, preparatory to the start of the vaccine storage and distribution processes across the nation from next month. Hope is that we have the wherewithal to handle the emerging crisis too in effective ways.