The third coming

It is hard to believe, and harder still to digest. Barely six months after the scary and heart-wrenching scenes witnessed by every Indian during the dreadful second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we seem to be carelessly thumbing our nose at the latest variant of the virus – the newly discovered Omicron mutation. Not only are international arrivals at India's airports continuing rather nonchalantly, most of those entering the country are cribbing about being made to wait for long while their RTPCR tests are conducted and they are allowed to leave the airport. And unbelievably, there are some craftier arriving travelers who have mysteriously just disappeared from the airports and cannot be traced.

As I watch these developments on the television and social media or read about them on various news sites, I am dumbfounded and flabbergasted. How can we be taking such a casual approach just months after people gasped for oxygen and died, many of their bodies found floating in our rivers, with cremation and burial grounds running out of space? We had the second and most-severe lockdown in history and schools and colleges all but never re-opened. Businesses ran aground and our economy tanked. And yet, we are refusing to take due cognizance of the criticality and danger heading our way with the discovery of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, named after the 15th Greek alphabet.

Mark my words, as a people, a country and an economy, we just cannot afford another wave of the pandemic – we will be all but wiped out in terms of future prospects. It is time to take very serious note of this and introduce stringent measures to check the entry of the variant into India.

Also an opportunity

Paradoxically, this is also an opportunity for India and the authorities to learn from our experiences and mistakes of the last two years and take proactive and preventive measures, no matter how tough they appear to be, to bolt the stable door in time this once. In April and May this year, during the second wave, the numbers did all the talking, as India logged lakhs of new cases each day, with Maharashtra alone contributing around 40 per cent of the daily case-load. Capital city Delhi was not far behind, notching up nearly 40,000 cases each day during the peak. The scariest part, far more than these numbing numbers, was that the positivity rate in those being tested went well past the 35-per cent mark; that is one in every three persons tested had been infected.

I am revisiting these numbers only to underscore the sheer magnitude of what we have already been through, and what could be headed our way yet again. India has been globally condemned and berated for the way we handled the first two waves of the pandemic, holding massive public gatherings for visiting international dignitaries, campaigning for state elections and even a Kumbh Mela with an absolute disdain for any precautionary pandemic-appropriate measures. It wasn't just the political honchos who were guilty; the average Indian too returned to malls and clubs and our hill stations ran out of hotel rooms as gaiety and the typical Indian party culture returned to our streets, bars and food courts. Whisky, rum, butter chicken, 'golgappas' and 'chat paapri' again became the flavor of the day, and there was a complete disregard for any safety measures as even masks and sanitizers did the disappearing act.

And then the pandemic hit again with a vengeance. Today, we stand at the precipice of what could be yet another wave. And we have thrown all caution to the winds.

Why should we worry?

Well, simply because the virus has recognized our frailty and carelessness and now appeared in a new avatar, one that spreads five times faster than previous mutations. And be very clear that the jury is still out on whether any of the vaccines being administered worldwide will protect even the fully vaccinated from the new strain. If we don't want another lockdown and a return to a completely decimated economic situation, we need to pull up our socks now, stop mocking and scoffing and get to work.

What is this new variant? Well, Omicron was first identified in Botswana and South Africa, and this new avatar of the virus immediately triggered concern among scientists and health officials because of an unusually high number of mutations with the potential to make it more transmissible and less susceptible to existing vaccines.

The World Health Organization (WHO, which itself has been lambasted ever since the COVID-19 outbreak for its inept handling of the crisis), has called Omicron a "variant of concern" and warned that the global risks posed by it are "very high". Cases have been identified in nearly 35 more countries in every continent except Antarctica.

On Wednesday last week, a California resident who returned home from South Africa was identified as the first American infected with Omicron. Since officials have detected the variant in states as far-flung as New York, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota and Hawaii. In India, we have confirmed cases in Karnataka, Jaipur and suspected cases in Delhi, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh (at the time of writing this article). The numbers are rising, as is the panic among the people who are aware of the new strain. Unfortunately, the general public seems to be unaware or couldn't care less, since people at large have decided that the pandemic is over, or are sitting on the cushions provided by the 'fully-vaccinated' certificates ensconced in their back pockets.

What needs to be done?

Very clearly and as already stated, what is needed are tough preventive measures, even if they appear to be draconian. Various state governments have been asking the Central Government to shut down international flights, but the authorities have thus far been reluctant to do so, perhaps since already battered airlines and allied businesses would flat-line again in such an event. At the very least, a mandatory quarantine of a pre-identified number of days should be imposed immediately. All our international airports are surrounded by hotels and arriving passengers should be ordered to stay in them during the quarantine period. This will protect them and all Indians, while also boosting the hospitality business somewhat. Do remember, if this had been done and strictly imposed in February and March of 2020, COVID-19 would literally have never come to India and our country, after initial condemnation, would have earned the respect and admiration of every other nation for having staved off a pandemic of historic proportions.

But no, we dragged our feet then and paid for that act with people experiencing the beauty of lockdowns, dying relatives and neighbors, lost jobs and livelihoods and a battered economy. Thousands walked on our highways to get back to their villages, some as far as a 1,000 km away. Hospitals ran out of beds and oxygen and a country already in the grips of an economic downturn saw the worst Gross Domestic Product (GDP) performance since independence. Around 23 crore Indians were shunted below the poverty line and lakhs upon lakhs of our own perished or committed suicide.

I write this column with the hope that we will not have to re-visit those days again. As individuals, as families, as a society, as businesses and as an economy, we will just not be able to survive another setback. Over the last few months, we have taken the first few baby steps towards rebuilding our nation and our lives. Let's not fritter that away, yet again, at the altar of insouciance and callousness. Our country needs us to act, and act now, before it is too late yet again.

The author is a communications consultant and clinical analyst. Views expressed are personal. narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com