‘Stealth Omicron’ behind rise of Corona cases in China

The whole world including India is currently breathing a sigh of relief due to the decreasing cases of coronavirus. Corona cases in India have reached the lowest level in two years in the last one week. However, while the effect of corona is decreasing in India on one hand, in the country from where the first case of coronavirus came, the infection is again raising concerns after being under control for two consecutive years. Talking about the last three days, the number of infected in China has increased up to nine times.

How did the number of corona infected increase rapidly in China?

The extent to which the corona pandemic has been under control in China can be gauged from the fact that after the first case of corona was found in Wuhan, the entire country went under lockdown. The highest number of 14 thousand cases were reported in China on 12 February 2020. However, since then, leaving a few days in the middle, the corona cases in China could not reach above 200.

Earlier this year, China once again saw the impact of the Corona pandemic. On December 28, the number of corona infected in China was 209 and since then the corona cases found every day have remained above. Every day since February 23, the number of infected in China has been above two hundred, while on March 10, the number of cases reached above 500 for the first time.

Talking about the last three days, where there were 588 cases of corona in China on Friday, on Saturday this figure increased to 1938. After this, 1436 cases of corona were found in China on Sunday. But on Monday the number of infected was reported to be 5280. That is, where the number of infected has increased three times in the last one day, the cases of corona have increased nine times since Friday.

What is the reason for the rapid increase in the number of infected people in China?

For the last two years, China continuously controlled the cases of corona by following strict lockdown rules. Due to this, the dangerous alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants of this virus could not cause much devastation in China. At the same time, after the arrival of the Omicron variant, the number of infected people increased in China in January, but it was also controlled. Meanwhile, now the sub-variant ‘Stealth Omicron’ of the Omicron variant of Corona is also being said to be a major reason behind more cases in China. The shocking thing is that this sub-variant is not new and many other countries have also been affected by it before China.

What steps is China taking to prevent infection?

China has reimposed a zero-tolerance policy and imposed strict lockdowns to prevent overgrowth of Omicron’s stealth variant. Through this, China is insisting on finding each case and isolating it. Apart from this, the figure of public testing has been increased in the corona affected areas and cities.

Due to the new corona wave, a lockdown has been imposed in 10 cities of China. More than three crore people have once again been confined in their homes. Jilin province has been affected the most by the new wave. At least 10 cities and counties have been under lockdown due to the surge in corona cases. These include the tech hub of Shenzhen, where 1.70 million people live. According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), this is the highest single day increase in the last two years. Maximum 3000 new infected have been found in Jilin province.

If cases increase in China, should India also be worried?

In India, the Omicron variant of Corona had crossed two lakh active cases for a month. Two sub-variants of Omicron were observed in India during this period, where one variant was the base sub-variant of B.A.1 Omicron, while the other sub-variant was the B.A.2 stealth Omicron variant. The Stealth Omicron variant was detected in more than 60 countries around the world. These countries then included South Africa to Britain, Denmark and India. On the other hand, ‘Deltacron’, a combination of Delta and Omicron variants, was also causing havoc in many countries during this period. That is, at present, apart from Stealth Omicron, another variant which is expected to increase the number of infected in China, both of them have affected India.