‘Welcome to the ‘never’ normal world we live in’: Here’s how India Inc. reacted to the Omicron COVID-19 variant

Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO and Managing Director Uday Kotak has said that the latest COVID-19 variant—Omicron will prompt people, markets and policymakers globally to “shoot from the hip in crisis management” sans statistics to support their measures. He also welcomed the netizens to the “‘never’ normal world we live in”.

“Omicron variant scare today, something else tomorrow. People, markets and policy makers worldwide will shoot from the hip in crisis management without data. Welcome to the ‘never’ normal world we live in,” Kotak tweeted.

Kotak was, however, not the only one to tweet about the Omicron variant. Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also noted that the Omicron variant is supposed to be milder than Delta and wondered whether 7-day home quarantine for visitors from ‘at-risk’ nations were “too drastic” for travellers with negative RT-PCR test and having full vaccination.

“7-day home quarantine for at-risk nations’ visitors amid ‘omicron’ scare – isn’t it too drastic for RT-PCR negative and fully vaccinated traveler? Are we allowing paranoia rule us? Omicron is supposed to milder than Delta,” Shaw tweeted.

RPG Group chairperson Harsh Goenka and Mahindra Group boss and Padma awardee Anand Mahindra also shared their observations on the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus. While Goenka made a case for increasing vaccination coverage, Mahindra wondered if and how markets will be impacted due to this development.

“Our response to Omicron should not be alarm or anxiety or boosters necessarily but finding a way how we can get more and more people vaccinated. As long as the virus spreads unchecked in South Africa or in Europe, new variants will continue to emerge….. putting us all at risk,” Goenka wrote.

Mahindra asked, “And markets will dance to a change in the tune and rise again?”

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that the Omicron variant reflects the threat posed by vaccine inequity. “The Omicron variant reflects the threat of prolonged vaccine injustice. The longer we take to deliver vaccine equity, the more we allow the COVID-19 virus to circulate, mutate and become potentially more dangerous,” the WHO chief tweeted. He added that WHO is working with scientists globally to understand the Omicron variant and its impact better.

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