New variant puts Indians on high alert

Premature optimism may have had role in fresh wave of infections, experts say

A new virus variant makes it more complex for India to fight COVID-19 as the country experiences an alarming surge in new cases again despite growing numbers of vaccinations.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said a novel "double mutant variant" of the coronavirus had been detected. According to a genome sequencing and analysis of the samples collected from Maharashtra, India's worst virus-affected state, there is an increase in the ratio of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations compared with those in December.

"These mutations have been found in about 15-20 percent of samples," the ministry said.

Sudhanshu Bankata, a doctor in New Delhi, said: "The situation is far from normal. In fact it's alarming. The vaccination drive has to be sped up." The variant mutants could also be another reason behind the recent rise in cases, he said.

However, V K Paul, chairperson of India's COVID-19 task force, said people should not worry about mutations.

"The occurrence of mutations is a natural process. The RNA strand of the virus will replicate and will make mistakes resulting in mutations.

"We have to only suppress the chain of transmission to stop mutations of the virus. Testing, quarantine and containment will limit the spread of the virus."

The tally of confirmed cases in India rose by 62,714 to 11.97 million on Sunday, the biggest single-day rise since November, said the health ministry, with 312 deaths, the highest of this year, taking the death toll to 161,552.

India's caseload began to come down at the start of the year, with daily infections falling to less than 20,000 from a peak in September.

In recent days several states have imposed stringent travel restrictions, and others have announced curfews. Maharashtra started to impose a curfew with effect from Sunday.

Lax behavior

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said lax behavior in following safety protocols was to blame for the recent surge.

"With vaccines available now, people feel they should not wear masks," Vardhan said.

Amitabha Nandy, former head of the department of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and infectious disease specialist, said "a false notion of optimism" swept the country when the caseload was falling at the start of the year.

There is a conflict between the imperatives of economic recovery and virus control in India, said Li Jiasheng, a researcher with the Center for Asia-Europe Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong University.

"The sharp rise in cases may be closely related to resuming work and production before conditions have been significantly improved."

Commenting on reports that India is to make domestic inoculations a priority that may delay foreign deliveries, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the move is "understandable".

"We are already in discussion to keep a balance so that they can use locally but ... continue to provide other countries vaccines from the Serum Institute of India."

Aparajit Chakraborty is a freelance journalist for China Daily.