Pressing the alarm button best option
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: December 22, 2021 -

WHILE intensification of election-related activities and shopping spree for the ensuing Christmas festival seem to be the main causes for the slight increase in daily test positivity rate and detection of fresh cases of Covid-19 as had been reported in Monday's government bulletins, it is the notification issued by the Common Control Room advising 13 flight passengers to report to the health department authorities which is a cause for greater concern.

As the notification has been issued amid reports of the Omicron variant spreading rapidly in different countries and over 150 cases already detected in India, there is every reason to speculate that the listed air travellers who reached Imphal on December 11 and 12 in two separate flights might be suspected carriers of the highly transmissible variant of Covid-19.

The suspicion over possible detection of the latest mutant of the coronavirus has been deepened as the alert comes after over 10 days of arrival of the air passengers, who have now been instructed to immediately report for further surveillance and necessary quarantine and testing.

Even if the government report did not infer detection of positive cases from among the incoming flight passengers, the daily positivity rate crossing the 2 per cent mark after 13 days amid tell-tale signs of the general population not adhering to existing Covid appropriate behaviour indicates lapses in the disease containment measures.

It is only due to minimal arrival of international tourists coupled with extension of the restrictions on international travelling by the Union government that Manipur has been an Omicron-free state till today.

Hopefully, the situation will remain under control and the state will continue to maintain the status considering the sensitivity of its people on the pandemic after having experienced two vicious waves of the contagion.

However, the threat posed by Omicron cannot be dismissed as the latest variant of the coronavirus has been proven to be extremely infectious.

While nearly 90 countries now have reported its presence within their borders; the only respite, as on date, about Omicron is that despite its infectiousness it is less deadly than other variants that have wreaked havoc across the world.

Confirmation of the variant has also made many countries to accord importance to not only focus on the novelty of Omicron but to double up on the efforts to completely vaccinate people and then, based on the evidence, consider booster or subsequent doses, though full vaccination is no guarantee against the Omicron.

Regardless of Omicron infection considered less severe, health experts have been cautioning that the sheer volume of cases due to increased transmissibility could lead to overburdening of the health systems, in addition to ringing out the message that the variant probably exists in many other parts of world but has not been reported yet.

So far, the government of Manipur has done well to place restrictions on travellers from countries where a large number of cases are being reported.

However, these restrictions will only be useful if they are strictly implemented by all the government agencies and the public promptly informed if any Omicron cases have been detected.