Covid cases surge in China

China on Saturday reported its first death due to Covid 19 in more than a year. The country has seen covid cases rising rapidly in the past week. China last week imposed a lockdown in Changchun a city with having a population of nine million. The rising covid surge has forced China to review its ‘Zero Covid’ policy.

The World Health Organisation reports that new infections are up eight per cent globally compared to the previous week.  Besides China, the United Kingdom, USA and Italy have also seen a rise in their Covid cases“. After several weeks of declines, reported cases of covid19 are once again increasing globally, esp, in parts of Asia” WHO tweeted on Wednesday, March 16th. The WHO also noted that current numbers may be the tip of the iceberg as countries are testing little.

A sub-variant of Omicron is believed to be responsible for the surge in China. Meanwhile, Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Health Minister of India, chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday, March 17. The Minister directed officials responsible to do aggressive genome sequencing of samples to detect new variants if any, The Indian Express reports. The minister also reviewed the arrival of international flights. While the covid cases in India are on a decline, development has sounded an alarm bell.