I’ve had the new deadly Covid strain – why aren’t we doing anything about it?

While it is true that the rise in infections has not resulted in a rise in serious cases, we cannot afford to let our guard down

Last week I tested positive for Covid-19 for the fourth time since the pandemic started. My infection was confirmed at a time when India is experiencing a worrying spike in the number of cases driven by the new Arcturus variant.

The timing of this latest spike in Covid cases in India feels eerily reminiscent of the devastating Delta wave that ravaged the country in April 2021.

As a reporter, I covered the Delta wave, witnessing first hand the horror inside hospitals and mortuaries, the long queues and dead bodies, and people struggling to get oxygen cylinders and basic medicines that were out of stock.

India suffered a total of 4.7 million excess deaths during that wave, according to World Health Organization estimates. I had never seen so many dead bodies in my life.

The situation was dire, and it was hard not to feel overwhelmed. Each time I get the virus, it is a mental struggle as much as it is physical. The memories of those days are still fresh in my mind, and that’s why the news of a sudden spike in Covid cases in India is alarming.

I can only assume that my infection was also caused by this new variant, but there’s no sequencing at a level where you can know for sure.

My symptoms started off with a normal fever, which then developed into coughing, fatigue and body aches. I started taking medicines as soon as I could, which brought my fever down, but it still took me four or five days to recover.

The situation on the ground is worrying. Everyone seems to be getting infected, and testing remains low. Masks have almost entirely disappeared from public spaces. There is a general sense of complacency among people, and many seem to have let their guard down, assuming that the worst is behind us.

Despite the low testing, on Wednesday India recorded almost 10,000 new cases in just 24 hours. Virologists and epidemiologists have said weeks now that the new variant, also known as XBB.1.16, could be the reason behind the surge.

This is a significant increase from the fewer than 100 new cases India reported on some days in January, which was the lowest rate since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

Authorities have ramped up some efforts, health officials are holding review meetings to check the status of the nation’s Covid preparedness. State authorities have been told to undertake mock drills at health facilities to ensure operational readiness of medical infrastructure.

But the overall complacency and the lack of testing means that we don't know the true extent of the problem, and it's possible that the numbers are much higher than what is being reported.

It's frustrating, because we've already seen how quickly things can spiral out of control. In 2021, within weeks the daily infection count went from hundreds to thousands, and then climbed up to hundreds of thousands each day.

With India now overtaking China to become the world’s most populous country, it is not unimaginable that any further spike in cases could again overwhelm its fragile healthcare system.

People are already dying by the dozens in Delhi alone, but nobody seems to be making a big deal out of it anymore. It's as if we've become numb to the situation, accepting it as the new normal.

Experts have warned the new variant could be up to 1.2 times more infectious than the last major sub-variant. But apart from meetings and mock drills, there is still no preventative protocol in place to impose masks and social distancing.

While it is true that the rise in infections has not resulted in a rise in serious cases, we cannot afford to let our guard down. Covid is still with us, and it's likely that it will stay with us for the foreseeable future.

While learning to live with it, my hope is that we also learn to continue to be safe. And this time, I hope the authorities don’t wait for things to get worse before they take action.