A new variant in town?
Yesterday, social media was abuzz with news of a new variant detected in the south of France—identified as B.1.640.2. The trigger: A recently published study that found it in 12 cases back in November—including one person who recently returned from Cameroon. This version has 46 new mutations as well as 37 deletions. But despite all the buzz, this variant has been around for at least three months—and has only been classified as a “variant under monitoring” by the WHO. And there is no sign that it is more infectious or spreading rapidly. Indian Express has more details. Also read: This thread by epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding who is somewhat worried.
In other pandemic-related news:
- First, the numbers: The total number of daily new cases in India reported yesterday is 57,974.
- Maharashtra reported a whopping 18,466 new cases. And Mumbai’s mayor announced that the city will go into lockdown if cases cross the 20K-mark. The current tally is 10,606.
- Some good news from Maharashtra: only one out of 578 Omicron cases resulted in serious illness.
- Some terrible news from the US: It has set a new kind of world record, reporting 1 million daily new cases on Monday. The country beat its own previous worldwide high of 590,000—reached just four days ago.
- A number of states have announced tighter Covid rules—including weekend curfews in Delhi and Karnataka.
- Speaking of Karnataka, authorities in Bangalore are worried about soaring sales of at-home rapid testing kits. This makes it way harder to track people who may test positive.
- The WHO warned that soaring cases of Omicron could breed more variants: “The more Omicron spreads, the more it transmits and the more it replicates, the more likely it is to throw out a new variant. Now, Omicron is lethal, it can cause death ... maybe a little bit less than Delta, but who’s to say what the next variant might throw out.”
- Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that he has tested positive—with mild symptoms. See this clip of one of his election rallies where he is not wearing a mask.
- Contrary to the health ministry’s claims, Covaxin has not been approved by the WHO for under-18s. The Print has that story.
- Indians finally have a Covid treatment pill called molnupiravir—which costs Rs 1,399 for a five-day course and is effective in treating mild to moderate cases.
- Bengal has restricted all flights from Mumbai and Delhi to two days a week—Monday and Friday. In response, IndiGo has canceled all other flights to three cities in the state for the next three months.
- Organisers of the Australian Open have given defending champion Novak Djokovic a special medical exemption from being vaccinated—and it is triggering outrage and surprise among other players.
Elizabeth Holmes is going to jail
The founder of Theranos was found guilty of engaging in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud investors—but was acquitted on charges of cheating patients. Each of the four charges she is convicted for carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, plus a fine of $250,000. The Stanford University dropout—who was once hailed as the next Steve Jobs—claimed to have developed a revolutionary blood test that was cheap, fast and could screen for 200 health conditions using a proprietary technology. Wall Street Journal and BuzzFeed News have more details.
Doing far better: WeWorks founder Adam Neumann who was forced to exit the company after a failed IPO attempt in 2019. He has started a new career as a landlord—acquiring majority stakes in more than 4,000 apartments in Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Fort Lauderdale and other US cities. The aim: to create a ritzy chain of apartments stocked with high-end amenities. For example: a saltwater pool, a dog park and valet trash pickup. Wall Street Journal via Mint has more on the big rebound.
Bangladesh score historic win
The team chalked up their first ever win against New Zealand in a shocker test match thanks to bowler Ebadot Hossain—who helped deliver an eight-wicket victory thanks to an incredible 6-46 spell. Hossain is a former volleyball player for the Bangladesh Air Force—and has only played cricket for around five years. CricBuzz and Cricket.com.au have more details. Watch Hossain’s post-match interview below:
China is building bridges…
But not of the friendly kind. Beijing is constructing a bridge that connects the north and south banks of Pangong Tso—which marks disputed territory on the border of Ladakh. And it’s located within 25 kms of the Line of Actual Control. Why this bridge matters:
“On the North Bank there is a PLA garrison at Kurnak fort and on the South Bank at Moldo and the distance between the two is around 200 kms. The new bridge between the closest points on two banks which is around 500m will bring down movement time between the two sectors from around 12 hours to 3-4 hours.”
The Hindu has more details. See a satellite image of the bridge below:
Speaking of China: The city of Xi'an has been under a total lockdown since December 23—and its residents are resorting to creative ways to deal with food shortages:
“Videos and photos on social media site Weibo showed people exchanging cigarettes for cabbage, dishwashing liquid for apples, and sanitary pads for a small pile of vegetables. One video showed a resident appearing to trade his Nintendo Switch console for a packet of instant noodles and two steamed buns.”
FYI: Authorities recently shut down the city of Yuzhou after the discovery of just three cases, all of them asymptomatic. (BBC News)
A travel list for art lovers
The rankings for the ten best cities for aficionados of arts and culture are out. At the very top is Venice, of course—for its number of monuments and statues (94 per million people), as well as museums (183.3 per million people). It’s followed by Miami and Florence. In fact, there are four US cities in the top eight—including San Francisco, Santa Fe and Seattle. Check out the full list here. (Travel and Leisure)
Three things to see
One: Right in the middle of a Covid shitstorm, the local Congress leader in Bareilly organised a marathon for young women and girls as part of the party’s ‘Ladki hoon, Lad sakti hoon’ campaign—which looked like this. When criticised, the leader Supriya Aron said: “Thousands in crowds also went to Vaishno Devi. What about that? See, it's a very human thing. These are schoolgirls and they only wanted to come out for a bit.” Covidiocy knows no limits or party lines. (NDTV)
Two: Matt Damon made this ad for Crypto.com, and many people loathe it.
Three: 700 sheep and goats were arranged in the shape of a syringe to encourage vaccinations in Hamburg, Germany. All the sheep needed as incentive was a bit of bread. Too bad anti-vaxxers don’t respond as well to carb-loaded incentives. (NPR)