Coronavirus India February 23 Live News: In ‘endemic game’ for India, why new variant may be a disruptor

Coronavirus Statistics in India Live, Coronavirus Prevention Live Updates: With daily new coronavirus infections coming to a relatively lower level, there is a new conversation among the experts about India entering the ‘endemic phase’ of the viral cycle. In simple terms, this means that the number of new infections remain more or less same for a long period of time in a particular geographic region.

For example, if India registers say 20,000 new Covid infection for next six months, then experts may say term it as endemic phase for the country. But this doesn’t really mean that the virus is not in circulation or it is not deadly enough. It means that there won’t be any major outbreaks for a long period of time.

For a clearer understanding, let’s take example of the UK. Under the new ‘living with the virus’ policy, the United Kingdom is doing away with all kinds of Covid curbs. But health experts say that such approach also means lesser testing and lower genomic scrutiny. This may not help authorities is detecting new variants at an early stage. Closer study of cases of hospitalisations is required.

Like the case of BA.2 lineage of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus. It is already a significant contributor in global infections with as many as 1/5th of the total worldwide infections being attributed to this variant. Bottomline – Masking up is and should remain the way to live. It is new normal.

Here are the new Covid updates for February 23: