The Bug Returns: China, the US, Brazil, S. Korea, Japan…back on the Covid-19 map

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: With India returning to the mask-and-sanitation regime, Covid-19 threatens to overwhelm not only China but also the US, South Korea, Brazil, Japan, and several other countries as their ships and aircraft potentially turn into carriers of the pandemic in the next few weeks, the media reported.

With fresh coronavirus waves forecasted in several countries, including the US—the worst-hit country—New Delhi on Tuesday, directed all the state governments and Union Territories to gear up for genome sequencing of Covid-19 positive cases to keep track of the emerging variants of coronavirus.

Because of the fresh infections, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavia on Wednesday also urged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to either allow only the fully-vaccinated people to join his ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered Haryana from Rajasthan, or suspend it altogether. He also advised people to wear masks in crowded places and use sanitizers.

The media reported that while the SARS-Cov-2’s B.7 variant is sweeping through China, new Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 account for about 70 percent of new Covid-19 cases in the US. America’s overall caseload has surpassed 100 million, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. The strain BQ.1.1 made up about 38.4 percent of circulating variants in the week ending December 17, and BQ.1 nearly 30.7 percent, according to CDC data.

These two variants are descendants of Omicron’s BA.5 subvariant and have been growing faster since October, China’s Xinhua news agency said, citing the data.

At the beginning of October, each of the two new variants accounted for about 1 percent of new infections, replacing BA.5 as the dominant strain in mid-November. BA.5 only accounted for 10 percent of new infections in the latest week. Another Omicron subvariant, XBB, is also rising, accounting for 7.2 percent of new infections.

Researchers found that the BQ and XBB subvariants are “barely susceptible to neutralization” by the vaccines, including the new Omicron boosters, according to a study published recently in the journal Cell.

This could spark a surge in breakthrough infections and reinfections, although the vaccines might hold up against severe disease, the study said in its latest update on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

As of Wednesday, the University said, the US’ overall caseload stood at 100,003,814, while the death toll increased to 1,088,236. With the highest number of cases and deaths, the US remains the worst-hit country in the world, accounting for over 15 percent of the global caseload and 16 percent of the fatalities.

America’s Covid caseload reached 50 million on December 13, 2021, crossed 60 million on January 9, 2022, exceeded 70 million on January 21, topped 80 million on March 29, and surpassed 90 million on July 21, the reports said.