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Bihar To Open Schools Partially: Beware Of The Fallout Of Relaxing COVID-19 Restrictions

Bihar To Open Schools Partially: Beware Of The Fallout Of Relaxing COVID-19 Restrictions
Bihar to open schools with 50 per cent attendance of students above class 9 .

Researchers have warned that relaxing Covid-19 restrictions prematurely could pave the way for new vaccine-resistant virus mutations.

Written by Longjam Dineshwori |Updated : August 5, 2021 1:12 PM IST

The Bihar government has decided to open schools and coaching centres partially from tomorrow (Friday). The decision was taken during the meeting of the crisis management committee, chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The committee formulated new guidelines under 'unlock 5', including allowing schools to reopen with 50 per cent attendance of students above class 9 from August 6. After assessing the situation, it plans to open schools from Class 1 to 8 after August 15.

Also, the state government has allowed opening of coaching centres for students above Class 10, in the interest of those preparing for competitive examinations.

Under 'unlock 5' guidelines, cinema halls, theatres, and malls can also start operating from tomorrow with 50 per cent capacity. However, religious places are not allowed to open yet.

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Bihar reported 18 news Covid cases and two deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data, updated at 8 am today. Total, there are currently 366 active Covid cases in the state.

Should we now relax COVID-19 restrictions?

As new cases continue to drop, many states and union territories have issued fresh guidelines, easing COVID-19 restrictions. But experts have warned against relaxing Covid-19 restrictions prematurely. It is to be noted that cases are still high in some Indian states, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram and Assam. Several countries are also seeing rise in new Covid cases.

In an article recently published in the journal Virulence, researchers at the University of East Anglia and the Earlham Institute have alerted that relaxing Covid-19 restrictions too soon could pave the way for new vaccine-resistant virus mutations.

The researchers fear that rising cases could provide opportunities for the virus to evolve into new variants that could be more virulent, more vaccine resistant, and more dangerous for children and vulnerable groups such as transplant patients.

Lead author and editor in chief of Virulence, Prof Kevin Tyler from UEA's Norwich Medical School, noted that although vaccines have weakened the link between infection and mortality, most of the world's population are still unvaccinated, and even in countries with efficient vaccination programmes, a significant proportion of society, particularly children, remain unprotected.

"Relaxing restrictions boosts transmission and allows the virus population to expand, which enhances its adaptive evolutionary potential and increases the risk of vaccine-resistant strains emerging by a process known as antigenic drift," he explained, as quoted by Science Daily.

Vaccinating children necessary to control emergence of new variants

Prof Tyler suggested that we need to act fast and decisively to slow down the rate of new variant emergence. Vaccines in combination with other public health policies could help in reducing the number of infected people including children.

The risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid-19 is very low in children. But new strains may evolve with higher transmissibility in children, warned Prof Tyler as he underscored that need to vaccinate children to control the emergence of new variants.

He said that relaxing restrictions while children are not vaccinated could inadvertently increase the risk of emergence of virulent variants that are better able to infect children and are also more problematic in vulnerable groups.

Further, he noted that new variants are relatively more often found in younger age groups.

So, when can we relax social restrictions?

"Only when a large proportion of the world's population is vaccinated, or has acquired immunity from infection, can we relax other social measures," Prof Tyler stated.

"As long as there are large numbers of unvaccinated people around the world transmitting the virus, we're all at risk," added Co-author and director of the Earlham Institute (EI), Prof Neil Hall.

While the governments are working on speeding up current vaccination programmes, it is our responsibility to continue using public health measures such as social distancing, compulsory wearing of facemasks in public places, to bring transmission rates down.

With inputs from agencies