Hoping to defeat Omicron or the third wave is futile without suitable body armour
Prevention is better than cure. More so when you have little idea what you’re fighting against. And with the emergence of the Omicron variant — which has marked its frightening presence in at least 59 countries already — caution becomes even more critical. India has registered nearly 32 cases of Omicron but that’s not the cause of worry because the bigger threat still remains to be our lousy behaviour towards the virus. People continue to flout the COVID protocols with impunity and that only sets the seal on the onset of another deadly wave. The NITI Aayog has warned that people are operating at a “very risky and unacceptable” level. According to it, mask usage is declining in India. It stresses that both vaccines and masks are important and we should learn from the global situation. Pointing to the speed of the Omicron spread, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said that only two countries had reported Omicron cases till November 24 but the number has surged to 59 in just two weeks.
A similar trend was witnessed when the Delta variant — which wreaked havoc during the second wave — was emerging in India. People neglected repeated warnings from the Government and world health bodies, which led to an unprecedented explosion in the COVID-19 cases tally. An IIT Kanpur professor had a few days ago claimed that a third wave could peak in India between January and February next year. While some experts had predicted that the third wave could be avoided, the new mutations and our irresponsible behaviour only spell danger. Though the majority of the Indian population has now developed some sort of resistance against the virus either through vaccination or their own immune response, it does not provide guaranteed protection from Omicron or other mutations that might appear in the future. Even fully vaccinated people have been found COVID-positive with Omicron. Therefore, face masks and social distancing norms along with the vaccination become our best bet. The Government should now ramp up the vaccination drive and, in a stern way, deal with vaccine hesitancy. The citizens must realise that it’s not just the Government’s responsibility to deal with the virus but theirs, too. Any further lapses would only hamper the country’s health, education, economy and employment which had barely begun to pick up.