West Bengal is Covid hotspot, says expert
April 28, 2021
Almost all variants are present in the State, says top virologist
West Bengal is the State that virologists should be looking to if they want to know where this pandemic is going as all major variants of concern are present in the State, said a top virologist. Bengal recently witnessed a cut-throat campaign for its eight-phase Assembly elections .
“West Bengal, which is a scene of action in more sense than one, has pretty much all the variants of concern around. It has UK variant, Indian variant, South African variant, and Brazilian variant. As a virologist I really believe that West Bengal is something to look to because I think with the type of crowds assembling there, the future of the pandemic doesn’t look to be a happy one,” said Shahid Jameel, a noted virologist and Director of Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University.
COVID-19 is out of control in India, where most vaccines are made How did that happen?
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India COVID-19 death toll climbs amid oxygen shortages The true numbers are being suppressed
India s relatively low fatality rate doesn t tell the whole story and suspicions abound that there s substantial undercounting in several states.
Suspected cases are not being added to the final count and deaths from the infection are being credited to underlying health conditions, point out observers. There appears to be a wide discrepancy between official records of deaths attributed to COVID-19 and reports of cremations and burials that are many multiples of what might normally have been expected, Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, told DW.
How did this happen?
According to Jameel, there are three key factors driving the latest surge: complacency, variants and large spreader events .
Complacency exists at the individual, government and public policy levels, he said, while the development of more infectious variants pose further danger as they could potentially break through existing immunity .
Variants currently of concern include Kent B117, which has spread rapidly across the UK and dozens of other countries, as well as the B.1.617 variant, which was first detected in India. It is not currently known whether the latter is more or less contagious, or how it will respond to vaccination.
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India recorded another 349,691 infections and 2,767 deaths, but the figures are believed to be even higher
The US has offered to send assistance as India struggles to contain the surging second wave of the virus
Dr Shahid Jameel has warned it still yet to hit the peak of its second Covid wave despite landmark cases
He said that models suggest there could be 500,000 infections per day at the end of the first week of May
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