Two years of living with the Covid-19 pandemic

The ongoing global Coronovirus or the Covid 19 pandemic has been one of the most talked-about events in the recent history of humanity. The virus has infected and killed millions of people around the world. The world has seen various variants of the coronavirus in the past two years, be it Alpha, Delta or now Omicron.

Covid-19, which was unheard of around two years back, is now known to everyone as it has affected everyone globally in one way or the other, be it the way one travels, shops, or eats, among others. Though many virus trends are improving worldwide, the global death count has hit a tragic milestone of 6 million. The world is slowly but steadily getting back to normalcy with easing on international travel and easing of Covid-19 restriction in many countries.

It was on March 11 2020, exactly two years ago, that the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a ‘global pandemic’, pointing to the over 118,000 cases of the coronavirus illness in over 110 countries and territories around the world and the sustained risk of further global spread.

“This is not just a public health crisis, it is a crisis that will touch every sector. We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear. So every sector and every individual must be involved in the fights.” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, was quoted as saying.

As the pandemic continues to impact countries globally and the number of new Covid-19 cases worldwide continues to fluctuate, Indian Weekender looks at how the pandemic has changed the world in the last two years, especially with regards to New Zealand and India.

As of March 11, 2022, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 452.5million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6 million and vaccinations to over 10.6 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The United States continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 79,406,602 and 963,819, according to the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). The second worst-hit country in terms of cases in India, with 42,980,067 infections and 515,459 deaths.

Closer home, the first case of Covid 19 was reported in New Zealand on February 28, 2020. It was a woman in her 60s who had recently visited Iran and returned to Auckland on February 26, 2020. As of March 11, 2022, NZ has had a total of more than 286,752 cases, and 65 people have died from the virus. 

On the other hand, on January 30, 2020, India reported its first case of Covid-19 in Thrissur, Kerala, which rose to three cases by February 3, 2020; all were students returning from Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic. India has seen 42,980,067 Covid 19 cases so far, there have been 515,459 deaths, and 42,420,120 people have recovered as of March 11, 2022.

Nobody would have thought of strict lockdowns, international travel bans and the need to wear a mask while going out or need to have a vaccine pass while dining out, but unfortunately, it has become the way of life globally now. As a response to combat the virus, vaccination is the best defence, and each country is doing it bit on that aspect, and now many counties, including NZ, is focussing on booster shots.

In terms of vaccinations, 63.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. And a whopping more than 10.9 billion doses have been administered globally.

Talking about New Zealand, more than 10,511,625doses have been administered so far for those who are 12 years and older, including 2,488,753 boosters.

On February 3, 2021, the NZ Government formally authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use in NZ. On February 20, 100 nurses became the first people in NZ to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. And on March 1, The Novavax Covid-19 vaccine has been approved in New Zealand for those aged 18 and over. The Novavax vaccine Nuvaxovid is the fourth vaccine to be approved by Medsafe. Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Janssen are all approved for use in NZ.

On the other hand, India began the administration of COVID-19 vaccines on January 16 2021. In India, the cumulative Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 179.63 crores (1,79,63,21,377) as per the Union health ministry website

Over 75 per cent people in 15 to 18 age bracket have received the first dose of Covid vaccine, tweeted Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday. India has administered a total of 5,55,80,872 first dose of Covid vaccines and 3,20,34,392 second doses among this age group as on Wednesday morning, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.

India initially approved the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine (manufactured under license by Serum Institute of India under the trade name Covishield) and Covaxin (a vaccine developed locally by Bharat Biotech). But now, Sputnik V (manufactured under license by Dr Reddy's Laboratories), Moderna vaccines, Johnson & Johnson vaccine and ZyCoV-D (a vaccine locally developed by Zydus Cadila) and other vaccines have been approved for emergency use.

The Covid 19 pandemic is arguably the most significant global crisis of the recent time. It has impacted most of us globally in one way or another, but with the vaccination drives going in full swing, there seems to be the hope that things will get better.