RANCHI: With a new and “more transmissible”
virus strain infecting people in Maharashtra and in Kerala in the past few weeks, healthcare
experts in Jharkhand have urged everyone, especially senior citizens and those with co-morbidities, not to let their guard down and stressed on the need for vaccination of vulnerable groups. “The manner in which cases have spiked in Mumbai is definitely a cause for concern since those who had recovered are now getting re-infected. Those with a low antibody count aren’t immune to the new virus strain and they, needless to say, must maintain social distancing, wear masks and use sanitizers,”
Dr Pradeep Bhattacharya, professor of critical care and head of Rims trauma centre, said.
Dr Bhattacharya added that those who have been vaccinated are relatively safe but that doesn’t mean that they will not follow the Covid-control measures. “Those with co-morbidities run the risk of getting infected despite being vaccinated,” he said.
Dr Jitendra Kumar, senior microbiologist at the CCL Central Hospital who has been examining the new virus strain, said, “There hasn’t been any official proof that the
new strain is lethal. We may have seen a spike in cases in some parts of the country but that doesn’t mean that it will increase the mortality rate. Having said that, we need to be careful and vaccinate as many people as possible.”
Some experts fear that if the number of cases increases then the death toll might increase as well as they are supplementary to each other. Terming the spike in Maharashtra and Kerala as a secondary wave, public health expert and professor of community medicine at Rims, Dr Dewesh Kumar, said, “This is for the third time that Kerala, Maharashtra and Bangalore have reported a surge in infections, which is something very common in a pandemic. Having said that, these infections can pose a risk to the geriatric population. They may have developed antibodies but chances of them getting re-infected are always there if there is a mutant strain.”