China’s Covid restrictions may result in hard exit strategy

A woman wearing a mask to protect herself walks past a globe shaped sculpture in Beijing on Saturday. Pic/AP

The sweeping "zero-tolerance" strategy that China has used to keep Covid-19 case numbers low and its economy functioning may, paradoxically, make it harder for the country to exit the pandemic. Experts say the Coronavirus around the world isn't going away and believe it could eventually become, like the flu.

In countries like Britain and the US, which have had comparatively light restrictions against the Omicron wave, there is a glimmer of hope that the process might be underway. The government's practice throughout the pandemic of trying to find and isolate every infected person has largely protected hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and staved off the deaths that have engulfed most of the world. But the uncompromising approach also means most people in China have never been exposed to the virus.

"China's susceptibility to outbreaks is likely to be more because most people have not been exposed to the virus due to the stringent measures that were put in place, thus lacking hybrid immunity, which is supposed to prove better protection than vaccination alone," said Dr Vineeta Bal, an immunologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.

1st molecular structure of Omicron protein created by Indian-origin scientist

An Indian-origin researcher at University of British Columbia (UBC) has created the world's first molecular-level structural analysis of the Omicron variant spike protein. Published in the Science journal, the analysis which is done at near atomic resolution using cryo-electron microscopy, reveals how the heavily mutated Omicron variant attaches to and infects human cells.

"Understanding the molecular structure of the viral spike protein is important as it will allow us to develop more effective treatments against Omicron and related variants in the future," said the study's lead author Dr Sriram Subramaniam, a professor at UBC's department of biochemistry and molecular biology. "By analysing the mechanisms by which the virus infects human cells, we can develop better treatments that disrupt that process and neutralise the virus," Subramaniam added. The spike protein, which is located on the outside of a Coronavirus, enables SARS-CoV-2 to enter human cells.

34,75,09,793
Total number of cases worldwide as of Saturday

56,05,320
Total no. of deaths worldwide

27,69,70,810
Patients recovered worldwide as of Saturday

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