Nepal, May 23 -- After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an end to the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2023, people let their guards down. Mandatory preventive measures like staying in quarantine, wearing masks, using sanitisers, washing hands and maintaining social distance were quickly ditched. Vaccination drives also slowed down. Healthcare facilities stopped stockpiling test kits as people didn't get tested for Covid-like symptoms, even as new variants surfaced. Come 2025, people had begun to believe that the chapter on deadly virus had closed, but another variant-JN.1, a descendant of the Omicron BA.2.86-emerged.

The variant, which spreads seven times faster than the flu, has already raised alarms in Southeast Asia and India. In...