Covid surge in China has become worrisome in Telangana and elsewhere

The steep increase in daily infections and the projections that at least a million people will die due to Covid in 2023 in China has also triggered a sense of deja-vu not only among general public but even among public health officials.

Hyderabad: The rapid rise of Covid infections and fatalities in China has become a worrisome development given the fact that Telangana and other Indian states had to bear the brunt of Covid-19 pandemic for over two years.

The steep increase in daily infections and the projections that at least a million people will die due to Covid in 2023 in China has also triggered a sense of deja-vu not only among general public but even among public health officials.

After a gap of over two-years, people have resumed travelling to countries across the globe in a big way and the ongoing surge of Covid infections in China could have a potential to cause similar Covid waves as were witnessed earlier. Unmitigated spread of the infections could also lead to an emergence of a new variant that could cause fresh waves, health officials here fear.

“This is worrisome because what happens in China doesn’t stay in China. Wuhan was a lesson three years ago. The current Covid spread is not only an unfolding tragedy but also exposes the local population to great risk. Think of the wider implications on public health and global supply chains,” Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, Dr Sangita Reddy, tweeted.

She added, “there is definitely no need to panic over the rise of infections in China. However, having said that, there is no place for inertia. We must act swiftly on our policy regarding air travel to and from China.”

Geneticists and public health specialists also believe that uncontrolled spread of Covid infections, which is taking place in China, could also cause a greater risk of the virus evolving and accumulating more mutations.

Senior scientist from Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, Dr Vinod Scaria took to the microblogging site and tweeted “apart from avoidable deaths that the uncontrolled spread of Covid could cause, there is a greater risk of SARSCoV2 evolving by accumulating more mutations”.