The second wave of Covid appears discounted by markets especially as the vaccine rollouts have been started and markets think that will solve it. but from a personal health perspective, it may help to be aware of the trends. The second wave in my last discussion did not appear to be a global phenomenon but a regional one. Some of that remains true but we have seen spurts sustaining longer than usual in some regions and cooling off in others. Let's take a quick
preview of the charts.
I start with the UK where cases yesterday ended again at a new all-time high spiking back. Yes, Pfizer is approved for drugs here but this is what it is. I was also pointed to Switzerland where the daily new cases remain elevated.
But this is not the case everywhere. In France, we do see declines from the peak of the second wave sustaining so far.
Same for places like Italy or Belgium have also cooled off from the second wave.
The US is still crazy cases remain elevated in the national count but drilling down it is no more a regional issue with new highs in California seen last week. Texas Florida Illinois Washington New Jersey etc all have second waves with new highs in cases than before. Not a pretty picture. Not sure what they did wrong except getting complacent.
India is the surprise, the national count keeps coming down despite regional spikes. Even after more than a month of the second waves everywhere it has not shown up here nationally. Maharashtra is spared though some put it on lower testing. But even then our hospital beds are not going full so the data cannot be that off the mark. The regional spikes in Delhi Gujarat Rajasthan and West Bengal are behind us. Karnataka too appears to be cooling down, from when
Bangalore had no beds in Oct. If herd immunity is working or just that Indians have become more careful and more aware, in either case, we should be thankful. But not completely complacent.
