On This Day, India Reported First Case Of COVID-19 Two Years Ago, Here's How Much It's Spread

January 30 marks the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Although most people have recovered from the it, there came a time when hundreds succumbed to the pandemic every day.

This day in 2020, a female student from Kerala who had returned from Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged tested positive, making it the first COVID-19 infection in India.

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It was still the early days of the pandemic and the infections had spread from the epicenter in Wuhan to a few countries.

The MBBS student, a native of Thrissur was one of the several Indian nationals who were evacuated from Wuhan after the city went into a lockdown, which was until then unheard of for the world.

In the days that followed two more students, both from Kerala, who were part of the same evacuation group also tested positive for COVID-19, taking the country's tally to three by February 3rd.

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None of the students developed serious health complications from their COVID-19 infections and made full recoveries after nearly two weeks in hospital.

Kerala was praised for its 'success' in containing the outbreak and ensuring that the situation was brought under control swiftly.

The days and weeks that followed went event-free for India, but by then the global epicenter of the pandemic had shifted from the locked-down Wuhan to Europe and Italy was the worst hit.

COVID-19 re-emerged in India in early March after a group of 14 Italian tourists tested positive in Delhi.

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This was followed by more infection on Indian nationals who had travel history to Europe.

The first COVID-19 death was reported in India on 12 March, when a 76-year-old man, with a travel history to Saudi Arabia died of the infection.

The first 'superspreader' incident was reported in India from Punjab, where a Sikh preacher who had returned from Italy and Germany, hid his travel history and attended several events including religious gatherings, infecting many people in the process.

As the number of cases began stumbling out of control, India went into a nationwide lockdown on March 24, and it was in place till May 31.

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The lockdown may have reduced the speed of the spread but did not stop COVID-19 from infecting more and more people and claiming more lives every passing day.

Within a matter of months, India became the third-worst COVID-hit country in the world after the US and Brazil.

India still is the second worst-hit country when it comes to COVID-19, after the US.

The first wave of COVID-19 in India peaked in October 2020 and in the weeks and months that followed cases came down rapidly.

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India launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive in January 2021 starting with frontline workers

However, by mid-April, it became clear that there was a second wave of COVID-19 in the country.

The second wave of COVID-19 between April and May was the worst when it came to the daily number of infections and deaths.

During the same period, the country also witnessed a massive shortage of hospital beds and medical oxygen, leading to the deaths of many more who could have been saved otherwise.

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This period also saw bodies piled up in crematoriums, sometimes for days and being thrown away in rivers, as people ran out of space to perform the last rites of their loved ones.

By 24 May, India recorded over 300,000 deaths from COVID-19 out of which 100,000 deaths were in the same months.

A COVID-19 variant, which was later named Delta was behind the second wave in India.

According to the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortia INSACOG, there are seven variants of concern that have been identified in the last two years in India ¨C Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.3, AY series and Omicron.

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Of these, Delta and Omicron variants have been found to be the most dangerous with the former driving the second wave of COVID-19 while the latter is behind the ongoing third wave.

A senior official said out of 1.5 lakh samples sequenced till January 2, variants of concern and interest have been found in 71,428 of them.

India is currently in the third wave of COVID-19 driven by the Omicron variant.

With the cases climbing down from its height earlier this month, India appears to have passed the peak of the third wave of COVID-19.

Till now, India has reported 4,10,92,522 cases and 4,94,091 fatalities due to COVID-19 and its variants.

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