Indians Wait For 2021 With Bleak Memes As New Coronavirus Mutation is Reported

This week, India suspended flights from the United Kingdom after reports of virus mutation surfaced online. The UK has reported a mutated version of coronavirus among its patients. The mutated strain of the novel coronavirus is reportedly 70% more infectious than the one that caused the coronavirus pandemic worldwide this year.

The news comes after the vaccine was announced for the coronavirus earlier this month. The development has also prompted netizens to get creative and share memes.

One user commented, "#Coronavirus gifts UK with a new 4th tier and more tears this Christmas…" Another user commented on the UK government's decision to keep its borders open despite the pandemic. The person questioned how fast do countries ban flight from the UK, while the English country kept its border open for other nations during 1st lockdown.

This user mentioned how coronavirus had planned the perfect surprise just when everyone thought that 2020 will end their misery.

Indian users brought out their own set of Mirzapur and Gangs of Wasseypur memes to describe the coronavirus mutation news.

For some users, this news was just coronavirus' new way of celebrating the new year.

Some netizens brought up the iconic Pakistani satirist Moin Akhter's memes from his Loose Talk episode and said, "Me thinking about #COVID19 vaccine while people talking about #mutation and #COVID20."

While for some Babu Rao from Hera Pheri aptly expressed their reaction to the news.

Expressing the dilemma of scientists, who have been working hard on creating the vaccine, this user tweeted this:

For some, the mutation they were expecting was in Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, but what they got was mutation in coronavirus.

https://twitter.com/xDDDGuy/status/1341043627821187073?s=19

Meanwhile, the UK government has put in place stricter lockdown measures during the Christmas week as the reports of mutation were confirmed by scientists. Many European countries have also put travel bans for flights coming from Britain. UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock told the House of commons on December 14 that over the last few days, with the help of their world-class genomic capability, they have found a new variant of the coronavirus which may be the cause of fast spread in the South of England.

UK authorities have notified the World Health Organization about the mutated virus as scientists get together to understand the implications of the reports.