The COVID-19 pandemic will persist at least for the next two years. Therefore, the public must take adequate precautions, State secretary of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) – Tamil Nadu State Branch A.K. Ravikumar said here on Friday.

As the virus has spread to rural areas, people must follow norms such as physical distancing, wearing of masks, hand sanitisation and coughing etiquettes. “Self-discipline will be the only vaccine for now,” Dr. Ravikumar told presspersons. Once the vaccine was developed, the process of administering it to the public could take “roughly six to nine months,” he said.

Instead of confirming COVID-19 deaths only through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing method, the State government must announce COVID-19 deaths that were confirmed through computed tomography (CT) scans and other biochemical tests, he said.

According to the data available with the IMA’s State branch, 32 doctors who tested positive through RT-PCR method had died in the State as on Thursday. However, 15 other symptomatic doctors who died had tested negative in RT-PCR tests, but tested positive through other methods such as CT scans, he claimed.

The State government must increase the number of private COVID-19 testing centres in semi-urban and rural areas to ensure that government testing laboratories were not overburdened.

As nearly 85% of the COVID-19 positive patients were asymptomatic, testing all the patients who visited hospitals had become necessary.

Dr. Ravikumar requested the State government to release official condolence messages for the doctors who died of COVID-19 and provide ex-gratia for their family members, irrespective of whether they worked in government or private hospitals.

The State government must also reconsider the rates mandated for private hospitals due to the high cost of COVID-19 treatment, he said.