While many countries have already been through the back-breaking second wave of COVID 19, a third wave is just around the corner.
It has been more than one and a half years since the COVID-19 virus forced the world into lockdown, and the pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe. However, in the past year, Science has managed to find the means to tackle this virus and developed vaccines in order to provide immunity to people. But owing to a mountain of misinformation around the vaccines available throughout the world, people have been hesitant in getting inoculated.
While many countries in the world have already been through the back-breaking second wave of the pandemic, a third wave is just around the corner. The Delta variant of the virus, which is said to be more dangerous and contagious, is deemed to be responsible for this resurge of cases.
The United States
As COVID-19 cases begin to resurge at a hemorrhaging rate in the United States of America, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor, has predicted that “things will get worse”.
This resurge is being largely attributed to vaccine hesitancy.
Notably, United States is the only country where the most effective vaccines against the virus are available free of cost, without any appointment, and within a 5km radius of every person. However, it is the US where most people are hesitant about getting the vaccine shot.
As reported by Reuters, on August 5, the United States reported more than 100,000 infections of COVID 19. According to the report, the average for the last week in the country is a whopping 95,000 per day.
The majority of cases in the country are being reported from the seven states of Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Notably, out of all the US states, these seven have reported the lowest vaccinations administered since the rollout of the national inoculation drive in the country.
The People’s Republic of China
Meanwhile, in China, the Delta Variant of the COVId-19 virus has started posing a new threat to the country’s healthcare structure. Five hundred cases of the more radical variant have been reported in scattered locations across the country. The scattered location of these new infections is worrisome as the variant is known to have a higher ability to spread.
Unlike the US, which has shown hesitancy in announcing lockdown measures, China has taken some drastic steps on that front. New restrictions have been imposed on Taxis and Public transport services in about 144 of the worst-hit areas in the country.
Along with these measures, the use of trains and subways has also been curtailed by the authorities to curb the spread of the delta variant. Although new infections of the delta variant are low in the country, the government has refused to put the efficacy of its home-grown vaccines to test against the virus in real-time and decided to use curbs to cut down infections.