Alarming uptick in COVID cases in China, Europe indicates we are on cusp of yet another wave

And while we looked the other way…the coronavirus returned. But when did it ever go away? It didn’t go into hiding. It only changed faces. Now it’s the Omicron BA.2 variant. The original Omicron was BA.1. China and Hong Kong have a case of the worst kind of BA.1, laying to waste Hong Kong’s ‘zero covid’ policy and China’s state-control.

China’s Shenzen province, which borders Hong Kong, and Jilin province, in northeast China, haven't had a prayer as the state clamped down with compelling corona testing, and forcible lockdowns. Foreign visitors to China, who were always open to the threat of forcible hospitalization if they carried an infection into China, have been advised not to fly into the country.

America too is under the threat of a renewed surge in coronavirus, this time from the Omicron variant BA.2. American infectious diseases experts are alarmed at what’s going on in Western Europe.

Another wave of the pandemic is threatening to derail Europe and the UK. This when Europe has done away with Covid restrictions following a decline in cases.

That was the coronavirus playing games. It is back in force and no country is spared. Germany is seeing an average of 200,000 cases a day. Britain is reeling under a 7-day average of 65,894 cases, and Netherlands was averaging 60,000-plus. All from the B.2 variant, which looks like it is by far more transmissible than the B.1 variant that had torn through the United States.

China and Hongkong has been, according to observers, witnessing “rapid outbreaks,” especially galling to China because it cannot get over allegations that it birthed the virus in the first place.

India, which saw a deadly second wave, has just woken up to the dangers of a fresh wave if care is not taken. Covid-appropriate behaviour long went out the window in Indian cities and small towns. The wave of elections that just recently rampaged through five Indian states has so far miraculously not displayed any signs of being ‘maha’ super-spreaders.

But the danger persists. The grand inauguration ceremonies of chief ministers in the election states and the roadshows in Punjab and Gujarat, this one by PM Modi, were venues where the coronavirus could have spread its venom and nobody bothered. Not even when it’s evident that even the vaccinated are not protected. They are as vulnerable to the Omicron as they were to Deltas 1&2.

The United States is apprehensive at this point as to how many of its citizens will get “severely ill” from Omicron BA.2, as even in the developed USA there will be pressure on hospitals and healthcare. Note that the “superior vaccination rates” of European countries aren’t guaranteed.

The White House said the other day that 35,000 cases of BA.2 have been reported in the USA so far.

India’s Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday held a high-level meeting in which it was resolved that we must be ready for any assault from the coronavirus following the rise in cases in Southeast Asia, China, and Europe.

(IPA Service)

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