Life in South Asia returns to normal as cases drop

Slowly but steadily, life in South Asia is returning to normal, and people hope the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind them.

Experts are optimistic the most recent wave driven by the omicron variant, which brought relatively low levels of death, has reinforced immunity bolstered by widespread vaccine coverage in the region.

The markets are crowded again. Traffic is jamming the roads. Migrant workers have returned to the cities for work. And young people are back at schools and universities — many of them for the first time in years.

While experts agree that opening up was the right move amid falling case numbers, they caution that optimism should be tempered with lessons from the past two years and that new variants remain a concern, especially if the virus mutates into a more lethal version while retaining its infectiousness.