Chandrakant Lahariya | Covid virus hasn’t gone, but risk now is very low
Deccan ChronicleOn November 8, 2022, India reported zero Covid-19 deaths for the first time since March 30, 2020. Though SARS-CoV-2 — the virus which caused Covid-19 — is still around and circulating in most settings ; but its ability to cause disease has been blunted, due to either past infection or Covid-19 vaccination and — in most cases — both natural infection and vaccination, the fresh infections are not resulting in the symptomatic disease. A small group of those with “high risk” of severe Covid-19 disease, with comorbidities, with weaker immunity and who are under treatment for any illness need to be careful, especially if there is a reported spike in cases in any setting. The uptake of Covid-19 precaution shots in India is low and people are not very keen to get a third shot. Future Covid-19 vaccines may also be combination of multiple variants and may also be universal SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, influenced by AI, with the ability to take care of circulating variants but also those variants which may emerge in time ahead.