Hyderabad: The re-emergence of Covid-19 infections across several States in the country, which is being associated with new variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus, is a clear indication that the virus will find new ways to thrive unless strict Covid appropriate behaviour is sustained, senior health officials here said.
At present, the second dose of Covid vaccines are being made available to healthcare workers and field level workers and still there is a large chunk of the population that does not have access to vaccine. The Health Ministry vaccination plan is to ensure they (vaccines) are administered to a critical number of individuals in a community which will then start triggering herd immunity towards Covid-19.
Senior health officials here, however, pointed out that individual states and the entire country is too far away from achieving such a status, due to sequential way of vaccine allocation to specific age groups of the population.
“Irrespective of whether you have vaccinated or not, we have always advocated the use of extensive masking, physical distancing and hand hygiene as the sure shot way to break transmission chains of the SARS-CoV-2. General public would be better served if they continued taking precautions,” says Director of Public Health (DPH), Dr. G Srinivasa Rao.
In the last one week or so, Maharashtra, Kerala, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir have shown an uptick in the cases of Covid-19 infections. The two States including Maharashtra and Kerala were contributing about 74 per cent of the overall Covid infections in the country.
As a result, the Health Ministry has written to these States to refocus their efforts in increasing RT-PCR testing, ensure those who test negative in rapid antigen tests undergo RT-PCR tests, start refocusing on surveillance and regular monitoring for new variants of SARS-CoV-2.
“Not everybody has access to vaccines but the virus has continued to find new ways to survive and infect others. So unless general public in Hyderabad realise this and start taking serious precautions, I won’t be surprised if there is a second wave here. People must follow Covid appropriate behaviour at any cost,” advises Superintendent, Gandhi Hospital, Dr. Raja Rao.
Senior health officials here have also maintained that they have improved the surveillance activity in Telangana. “In the last one week, we have strengthened our surveillance systems further and we are very much aware of the potential troubling hotspots in the State. However, one must also remember that all these preparedness won’t be effective if the general community doesn’t follow Covid appropriate behaviour,” Dr. Srinivasa Rao said.
New Variant Threat
1. Covid re-emerges in Maharashtra, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, J&K
2. New variants of SARS-CoV-2 being blamed for the spike in infections
3. Health officials in TS urge people to ensure they follow Covid appropriate behaviour
4. State strengthens its surveillance systems and identify hotspots
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