NEW DELHI:Effective masking, social distancing and indoor air ventilation remain the best protection against Covid-19, according to the findings of a survey by LocalCircles as 8 in 10 families that did not have any family member get infected with Covid in the last 2 years say they minimised social contact and diligently followed masking and social distancing norms during the three waves.
However, among those who had family members infected, 74% say they could have avoided infection by minimising social contact and following masking and social distancing norms.
On an aggregate basis, 57% of Indian families have had 1 or more individuals testing Covid positive in the last 2 years, or during the 1st, 2nd or 3rd waves of the pandemic.
"Following masking and social distancing norms are the two most important actions that every Indian must follow. The recent move by several states of India to remove the mask mandate is highly risky as it signals the end of the pandemic to the masses. If a 4th wave does arrive, it will find India with high vulnerability and with the habit of masking going away, the virus could spread rather quickly. Instead, the need of the hour is to initiate a “Mask for All program” such that every citizen has a few high-quality masks like N95, KN95, etc. available to them," said Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised an alarm regarding rising COVID cases globally despite testing levels dropping significantly.
Many countries in Europe like France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands and those in Asia like Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam and China are experiencing a huge surge in cases.
The surges around the world are being driven by BA.2 variants, its sub-lineages like BA.2.2, the Omicron XE mutant, which is a BA.1 and BA.2 recombinant. China now has over 50 million people in lockdown, including those at major business centers like Shenzhen and Shanghai with the highest daily cases being reported, reminding the world of January 2020, when the initial surge was reported in Wuhan, China.
The Center for Disease Control in China has issued a stark warning on Deltacron, citing that the worst as no recombination events involving large genomic fragments (like “Deltacron”) have been found in SARS-CoV-2 before. This week, BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron have been added by WHO to its monitoring list.
Scientists have reported that BA.4 has a 63% growth advantage over BA.2 and BA.5 has 84% growth advantage over BA.2. Both BA.4 and BA.5 also have the L452R pathogenic mutation which is also found in the Delta variant leading to concerns if these sub-variants can potentially be both highly transmissible and severe. BA.4 and BA.5 have just started rising in South Africa, the first country to report Omicron BA.1 in November last year and the one to experience the first Omicron surge.
In India, the Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) has reported 16 cases of BA.2+S:I1221T or the BA.2.2 sub-lineage of Omicron, which caused the recent surge in Hong Kong. Further, over 560 cases of Deltacron, a combination of Delta and Omicron variants, have also been reported in India in the last week of March. With 5-6 new variants being found in different parts of the world and all commercial flights to India operational, and complacency among Indians to wear a mask and follows social distancing rules, the big question many are asking is, what is next and will we see a 4th COVID wave soon?
In another LocalCircles survey, 9 in 10 surveyed said that most people in their area/district/city are either not carrying a mask anymore, or not wearing it or not wearing it properly basically indicating that the mask compliance percentage in India is in single digits.
