Omicron Scare: Delhi And Mumbai Leading So Far, The Third Wave Looming Large!
The Yellow alert, as decided by the Delhi government in July this year under the Disaster Management Act, has already been sounded, because the positivity rate has been over 0,5% for more than two days, reaching an alarming 0,89% now. More curbs are accordingly imposed under the yellow alert: night curfew is imposed now from 10 pm onward instead of 11 pm: schools/colleges, malls, cinema halls, auditoriums and gyms are being closed again; a maximum of only 20 attendees in marriages/funerals are to be allowed; restaurants/bars, metro railway, public buses are to operate at 50% capacity; no social, cultural and religious gatherings with restriction on entry to religious places; and all offices also have to function with 50% physical attendance. If the positivity rate crosses 1% orange alert will be declared which would be not much different from the yellow, but if the rate crosses 5% lockdown-like situation is bound to return.
In Mumbai, night curfew from 9 pm to 6 pm and other curbs on gatherings have already been in force including no New Year parties and no crowds on the beaches. With the new figures the Maharashtra government is reportedly having discussions with the civic authorities and if the rising trend continues in the next few days we can expect more stringent curbs, not only in Mumbai but all across the state. The effectiveness of night curfews is debatable as during the daytime everything seems to be normal everywhere in the country including the political rallies, and people are largely seen to not take these restriction seriously, as if inspired by their leaders. There has been no evidence to suggest that the Coronavirus variants are nocturnal creatures and sleep during the day. More positively, people in the national capital or elsewhere mostly react to the curbs as very necessary considering the threat, despite having to queue up for trains and buses and all other related hassles.
As we have said earlier the Omicron scare is very real. No need to talk garbage about it being less severe or leading to less hospitalization or deaths. The simple fact is that once the daily figures cross hundreds of thousands it’d obviously overwhelm the health infra even if only 1% of that need to be hospitalized, thus leading to more deaths. The top country on the Omicron chart, the United Kingdom, has shown a 53% rise in hospitalizations and 124 deaths in the last seven days. France, Denmark, Canada, Spain, Italy and many other countries are slowly coming under the ominous Omicron spread, and therefore the authorities in India should not sit pretty speculating and giving the green signals to all political activities like elections. Even if the citizens are clueless at the moment they must continue with the masks, hand-hygiene, social distancing and avoiding unnecessary moving out of homes or holidaying or partying.
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