Articles by Gunjan Sharma

“People have forgotten that the virus is still here,” says Dr Narendra Kumar Arora, member, National Covid Task Force. “They stopped wearing masks, or don’t wear them properly. They began to organise large social gatherings. It helped the virus spread,” causing a second country-wide wave of the COVID-19 infections, with daily cases crossing 50,000, for the first time since October last year.  Worryingly, the second wave seems to be more widespread than the first one, with the number of daily cases rising sharply from a low of about 8600 a day in February first week to a new high of 59,118…

On October 2nd last year, Neha Jaiswal, woke up with a stiff back, severe body ache and mild fever. The fever subsided the next day but other symptoms persisted. On the fourth day, her doctor advised a COVID test, which came out positive. She was advised complete rest and home quarantine for 14 days. After a week, the only symptom she showed was fatigue, which seemed to get worse with each passing day.   During the second week, Neha, a content writer, developed severe migraine along with the fatigue. Then her blood pressure dropped rapidly. And though she was on complete…

After 10 months, Delhi reported zero COVID-related deaths on January 9th. A few days earlier, the latest and the biggest serological surgery conducted by the Delhi government had shown that about 56% of the over 28,000 people whose blood samples were collected in January developed antibodies against COVID-19.   The sharp decline in COVID-19 cases across India, except a few states including Kerala and  Maharashtra is a clear indication that India has succeeded in controlling COVID-19 to a great extent. But are we really moving towards herd immunity, and can we afford to lower our guard? “No, the virus is unpredictable and may stage a…