COVID cases are spiking again, but there’s no need to panic; rather, follow basic hygiene

The country is currently recording around 90 per cent jump in its daily COVID count. The spurt is led by Delhi and is almost equally predominant in the National Capital Region, including several districts of Uttar Pradesh. The development has brought to fore the real and present threat of another COVID wave lurking around the corner. After a lull, Uttar Pradesh has again made the wearing of face masks mandatory in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Hapur, Meerut, Bulandshahr and Baghpat are also presenting a scary picture of what might be in store for the residents of these districts. Thankfully though, in what is sure to come as a breath of respite to the Yogi Adityanath administration, the genome sequencing in these affected districts has confirmed the presence of only the Omicron variant of novel Coronavirus. This variant, which was mainly responsible for unleashing the third COVID wave across the country, is highly transmissible but less severe, though the emerging threat of the XE variant is now making several Governments restless. Quite similar is the situation in Delhi and Haryana’s districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat and Jhajjar, where also the Governments have made face masks compulsory in response to the rising trend in the number of COVID cases.

Another reason for the spike could be the ‘targeted testing’ of extremely sick, senior citizens or those with comorbidities. Therefore, it’s normal for the test positivity rate (a bellwether figure for outbreak trends) to have shot up. However, it’s not a panic situation, at least not yet. Experts have cautioned against reading too much into these trends as these are still only emerging and since the hospitalisation and death rates have not risen in tandem. They feel that since it’s an mRNA virus, it’s normal and natural for the mutations to occur. A case in point is the Omicron strain, where fewer hospitalisations were recorded despite high infection rates. Worsening the ground situation and adding to the threat perception, a US study which came out last week has stated that the Omicron strain of COVID-19 is more likely than the other Coronavirus variants to cause upper airway infection among children, putting them at a higher risk of heart attack and other severe cardiac complications. It’s only a sense of precautionary safety, but it comes as no surprise that attendance has already started dipping in schools across the Delhi-NCR.