Theme : Bilateral, regional and global grouping involving India or affecting India’s interests etc
Paper:GS - 2
TABLE OF CONTENT
- Context
- CoronaVirus
- Various Methods to tackle COVID-19
- Strategy of China
- Ongoing Wave and Ways to deal it
- Road Ahead
Context : Mainland China is going through a critical phase in the health emergency, more dire than in the early days of 2020, as the country of origin for SARS-CoV2.
CoronaVirus :
- Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
- Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people.
Various Methods to tackle COVID-19 :
- Promoting herd immunity by allowing the virus to infect everyone: which advocated focused protection of the people at risk.Problem with this approach: It resulted in many deaths among the elderly and the others who were vulnerable.
- Zero-COVID strategy: Not allowing a single case of COVID-19 by imposing strict lockdowns, closing borders, and imposing travel bans.Vaccination impact: countries that followed the strategy abandoned it mid-course as it was untenable.
Strategy of China :
- China followed the unrealistic and prolonged Zero-COVID strategy.
- Zero-COVID strategy: It rendered the Chinese population relatively more vulnerable to the virus without better vaccines and strengthened health systems.
Ongoing Wave and Ways to deal it :
- Expand booster coverage
- Strengthening surveillance
- Reorienting the health systems for cohesive pandemic preparedness.
- Vaccinate 2-3 million young adults each month to the cohort of adults who are vaccinated.
- Second dose: Those who missed the second dose should be prioritized and vaccinated through outreach activities.
- Data made available by China in terms of epidemiological data, clinical features, mortality, and genomic sequencing.
Road Ahead :
- It is important to track the genetic variations in China and study the infectiousness and virulence of people in the rest of the world.
- Proactive measures taken by the Government are justified, including a higher level of commitment and review of the programme.
- Continuing enhanced efforts in genomic sequencing can provide timely information on newer variants.
- Instead of limiting assessments and corrections for each wave: strengthen the bottoms-up surveillance systems in an integrated manner to detect thresholds for different pathogens affecting human and animal health.
- Instead of devastations associated with outbreaks: choices for resilient structures and human resources can fortify in offering better outcomes.
- This is the time to build shared databases and surveillance across different sectors and identify new solutions that address the root causes and links between risks and impacts.
FAQs :
-
What is China’s Strategy?
ANS.
- China followed the unrealistic and prolonged Zero-COVID strategy.
- Zero-COVID strategy: It rendered the Chinese population relatively more vulnerable to the virus without better vaccines and strengthened health systems.
-
What is CoronaVirus?
ANS.
- Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
- Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people.