3 Years of COVID-19: From Lockdown, Vaccination to H3N2, the Battle Continues - News18
News 18It’s been three years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March 2020, and the impact of the virus has been far-reaching and unexpected. However, just when a government panel made an announcement in October 2020 that the pandemic had peaked and could be brought under control by February 2021, the country was hit by the largest Covid wave in February due to people becoming careless and not following Covid-appropriate behaviour, resulting in a rapid surge in cases and deaths. State-wide lockdowns were again implemented by March 2021, and in May 2021, WHO declared that two variants first found in India would be referred to as ‘Delta’ and ‘Kappa.’ By late-May, the number of new cases had begun to steadily drop across the country. However, the emergence of the Omicron variant in November 2021 brought a third wave to India, with around 7,000 to 9,000 daily new Covid-19 cases being reported.