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OP-ED DECEMBER 30, 2022 | The Indian Eye 14

Covid, again: Testing,

masking, and booster-taking

Views and opinions from the top commentators in Indian media

ise in Covid cases in China,
Japan, US and parts of west-
Rern Europe – hospitalization
has also increased in these places
– prompted the Centre to put state
governments on alert. While the
China surge can be understood as
an outcome of the withdrawal of its
flawed zero-Covid strategy, the worry
is that different subvariants appear to
be driving the surge in different coun-
tries. In Beijing, the BF.7 subvariant
is dominating infections while in US
the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 subvariants ac-
counted for 70% of cases.
Covid infections continue to re-
main flat in India but partly this could
also be due to reduced testing. Daily
testing now is in the range of 1 lakh
tests against 2-3 lakh tests per day in
November. With home testing kits
also available, it will be difficult to
get early warning of an uptick in In-
dia unless states get back into testing
mode and send as many positive sam-
ples as possible to Insacog labs for ge-
nome sequencing. Rise in OPD con- Priests wearing masks perform the Ganga Aarti in view of a surge in COVID cases in China and other countries in Varanasi on Thursday (ANI)
sultations and hospitalizations could
also offer clues. it seems to have an exceptional ca- first detected in India by the Guja- — appear more appealing to Bengal
While NTAGI has assured that pacity to infect those who have had rat Biotechnology Research Centre than the long passes and teamwork of
hybrid immunity from vaccination a previous Covid infection, or been (GBRC), Gandhinagar. So far two Europe. This may well be an oversim-
and natural infection will stand the In- vaccinated or both. Omicron has an cases have been detected in Gujarat plification, but distant shores seem to
dian populace in good stead, it is defi- average R0 of 5.08, meaning that and one in Odisha. cast a spell on the fish-eaters.
nitely a worry that the Indian vaccina- one infected person will transmit the --Rajib Dasgupta, The Indian Express Sometimes, it can be woefully
tion programme has lost steam since virus to about five more persons. In contrived. I don’t know how many
the receding of the third wave earlier contrast, BF.7 is reported to have an Poetry in football comrades secured junkets for the Bei-
this year. Though Gemcovac, India’s R0 value of 10 to 18.6. jing Olympics, but during the Moscow
homegrown mRNA vaccine received What could be a source of worry n a sense, romantic causes have Olympics of 1980, which the United
emergency use authorization in June, is the results of a study in the US that always exercised a hold on the States of America boycotted over the
nothing much has been heard since. found that BF.7 was resistant to neu- IBengali imagination, at least in Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a large
The company even reported having tralization in samples from triple-vac- recent times. Whether it was the po- contingent of Reds took Aeroflot
7 million doses ready. Bharat Bio- cinated healthcare workers, as well as etry of Pablo Neruda or the charisma flights to the socialist fatherland. On re-
tech’s intranasal vaccine, approved patients infected during the Omicron of Che Guevara, exporting revolution turn, armed with glossy brochures and
as a heterologous booster, is still BA.1 and BA.5 waves. This resistance into the jungles of Bolivia, the inter- photographs, many were dispatched
awaiting the nod to go live on CoWin. is explained by the R346T mutation. nationalism of the communist move- to offices in Calcutta to lecture ba-
The combination of higher transmis- ment struck a chord among Bengalis bus during lunch breaks on the virtues
-- Editorial, The Times of India
sibility and a higher proportion of as- — just as the exploits of Sinn Féin and of the socialist games. It didn’t have
The new scare ymptomatic carriers explains the dif- other Irish revolutionaries moved much impact, at least not as much as
ficulties that Chinese cities are facing an earlier generation of impatient subtitled films of muscular proletarians.
he BF.7 subvariant seems to in controlling the current wave. This nationalists. Maybe it is a stretch to -Swapan Dasgupta, The Telegraph (India)
be responsible for the recent is against the backdrop of a relatively equate Messi’s deft dribbling — wit-
Tsurge in Beijing and possi- low natural infection in China. ness one of the goals against Croatia Every week, we look at what the top
bly other cities in China too. BF.7, BF.7 has been detected in the in the semi-final — with the romantic commentators in the Indian media are
or more correctly BA.5.2.1.7, is a US, UK and in several countries in revolutionaries of yore. But individ- talking about and bring to you a slice
sub-lineage of the omicron variant Europe including Belgium, Germa- ual shows of brilliance — a hallmark of their opinions and comments
BA.5. BF.7 and is remarkable in that ny, France and Denmark. BF.7 was of the Brazilian team in particular

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