India started implementing random COVID-19 testing for foreign travelers arriving at its airports in response to the upsurge in cases in neighboring China.
On Thursday, India's minister of health Mansukh Mandaviya introduced the new regulation in Parliament. He also encouraged state governments to step up their monitoring for any new coronavirus strains and submit samples from all confirmed positive patients to genome sequencing labs, according to Al Jazeera.
What Makes The COVID-19 Situation in India Different From China?
According to reports in local media, at least four cases of BF.7 have been discovered in India so far. BF.7 is an Omicron subvariant that is responsible for the present spike in China.
China currently struggles with the world's largest COVID-19 pandemic since 2019. Although there is a lack of official statistics from China, news outlet Bloomberg cited research to estimate that it may be tracking 5,000 fatalities and one million cases each day.
The scenario in India is different from China, according to Dr. Randeep Guleria, a pulmonologist and former director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the nation's capital New Delhi.
He said that the BF.7 variety, which spreads quickly, is now being exposed to a huge number of individuals in China who had never been exposed to the virus due to the relaxation of the "Zero COVID" policy.
Additionally, the expert noted that vaccination rates in China are lower than in India. "So these factors are probably contributing to the spread there," Guleria said.
The BF.7 coronavirus strain has reportedly been present in India for at least the last two to three months, according to the expert. Mandaviya has urged the people to observe social isolation and mask use, even though neither practice is mandated by law.
As COVID-19 infections dropped dramatically in India earlier this year, the country loosened its mask policy. Since the pandemic started, it has had the most COVID-19 infections, although confirmed cases have dropped drastically in recent months.
Approximately 3,400 confirmed cases of coronavirus are now being treated in India, according to statistics from the country's health ministry.
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WHO: More Information Needed
According to a report from NDTV, the majority of symptoms from a BF.7 infection are due to congestion in the upper respiratory tract, which includes the nose, throat, and lungs. Besides those already mentioned, a fever, sore throat, runny nose, and cough are also frequent.Those affected may have gastrointestinal distress, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Doctors stress the need for prompt testing, as it may aid in preventing the spread of the disease by allowing for prompt choices on isolation and recovery medication. The severity of sickness is not worse with BF.7; rather, the true danger is the sheer number of individuals it may infect because of its considerably quicker transmission, making early diagnosis and isolation much more crucial.
Although the rate of recovery is rather high, the number of fatalities might be quite significant if the virus spreads at a faster pace than in previous forms. On Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), voiced his worry about the growing number of cases in China, mentioning the rising number of "severe" cases.
Tedros said in a press conference that the WHO requires "more detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions, and requirements for ICU support" to provide a full risk assessment of the situation on the ground, per CNN.
Experts in China have expressed concern that things might soon deteriorate worse. Last week, the head epidemiologist at the Chinese CDC, Wu Zunyou, warned that the country was seeing the first of three waves of illnesses this winter. The second wave of COVID-19 hit India last year, killing hundreds and overwhelming the healthcare system.
