New wave of Covid-19 in China: India stands ready
Mural amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New Delhi, India February 7, 2022. REUTERS - ANUSHREE FADNAVIS
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Faced with the outbreak of Covid-19 in China, India is preparing for a return of the virus.
The government has reintroduced mandatory testing for flights arriving from China and is pushing states to prepare their hospitals for the worst.
Epidemiologists, however, want to be reassuring in the face of this new wave.
Publicity
Read more
With our correspondent in Bangalore,
Côme Bastin
With less than 200 cases per day, India seems almost free of Covid-19, although the number of tests has dropped drastically.
But the
meteoric and murderous wave of the Delta variant in 2021
remains in everyone's mind.
No way for the government to be accused of negligence again.
The Ministry of Health has asked all federal states to provide their hospitals with beds and oxygen supplies.
Simulations of emergency situations are carried out, while the genome centers prepare to identify the new variants.
Do not panic
According to mathematician and epidemiologist Manindra Agrawal, who developed a predictive model of Covid-19 for the Kanpur Institute of Technology, however, there is no need to panic.
“
Our predictive models show that 92% of Indians have developed immunity that protects against the virus.
It is difficult to compare India with China, which has been practicing a zero Covid policy for three years.
The virus has not circulated, and as a bonus, the Chinese vaccine is questionable.
The Indian government is mainly acting to avoid criticism
,” he explains.
While the somewhat racist term "
Chinese virus
" is making a comeback, some experts denounce a political recovery of health concerns.
The opposition is thus accused of holding rallies, which did not bother the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in power when the Indian variant, renamed the Delta variant, exploded in the country.
► Also to listen: India: a record of vaccinations for the Prime Minister's birthday
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
India
China
Coronavirus
Health and medicine