New Delhi:The stigmatization of India over a coronavirus strain first detected in India continues with Russia being the latest to express serious concern among the about 70 countries on the ‘Indian strain’ which has been blamed for a deadly spike in deaths during the second wave of the pandemic in India.
Natalya Pshenichnaya, deputy director for clinical and analytical work at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, told a Russian news agency on Friday: “We were unable to avoid another rise in the infection rate due to the mass disregard for measures that prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
“It is especially important to adhere to these measures now when the Indian strain is circulating, and when young people, the most active part of the population, are spreading it among themselves and in other age groups.”
As of now, three main variants have been identified that have been associated with the place of detection—the UK strain, the South African strain and the Indian one.
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In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) had started the practice of naming different variants of the coronavirus with the Greek letters so as to avoid stigmatization by associating it with the country of origin.
WHO prefers to identify the UK strain as the Alpha strain and the South African strain as the Beta strain.
While most still term it as the ‘Indian strain’, the B.1.617.2 variant has been named by WHO as the ‘Delta’ strain. It was labeled as a ‘Variant of Concern’, a step above ‘Variant of Interest’ to indicate significant transmissibility and growing worldwide spread which had wreaked havoc in India and the UK.
Pshenichnaya pointed out that many Russians, including young people, with mild symptoms of the disease or no symptoms at all, continued to socialize despite having respiratory symptoms. The spread further multiplied due to the summer and vacation period when people travelled more.
She added that the public has been too relaxed even though herd immunity against the deadly virus was yet to be achieved.
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