Ranchi: A day after Jharkhand recorded the highest ever single-day spike of Covid-19 cases this year (278 cases), doctors and administrative officials, who played an important role in flattening the curve in the state, pointed at the negligence of the citizens who went lax after the cases dipped and the
vaccination drive began in the country.
Unrestricted movement of people from various parts, gaps in contact tracing, ignorance of protocols by vaccine beneficiaries and callousness among patients' kin in handling covid-19 patients are also leading to the spread of the virus, many said.
Talking to TOI, medical director of Bhagwan Mahaveer Medica Superspecialty hospital Dr Vijay Mishra said, “There are many reasons behind the surge, but the most important one is the false hopes among the inoculated population that they have become immune to the virus. The lax behaviour of these people is increasing the chances of re-infection and people are falling prey to the Covid-19.”
Mishra further said, “I have 28 patients admitted at the Covid-19 ward and half of them have either taken the first dose or both. If people are not following precautions after getting vaccinated then nobody can stop them from contracting the virus again.”
With the caseload increasing in the state capital (574 active cases till Friday morning), the number of patients at the state’s only tertiary care centre for Covid-19, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims), is also increasing.
Professor of Rims’s critical care department and trauma centre head Dr Pradeep Bhattacharya said, “We need to be disciplined and follow Covid appropriate behaviour as we haven’t been able to vaccinate even 10% of the total population of the state.
Laxity on the part of the common man has increased and people can be seen crowding at market places without wearing masks. There are a limitations on treatment too as it requires resources and manpower and if people aren’t changing their attitude towards increasing them, then they will have to suffer the worst.”
A few doctors also blamed the lax attitude of the government on contact tracing and testing rates and said there must be hundreds who are carrying the virus. “There must be a strict protocol wherein everyone needs to be tested and treated if they have returned to the state. They must be subjected to home quarantine and authorities must ensure that they are on surveillance. I have myself come across people who returned from Bengaluru and Mumbai and are roaming around in the city unabated,” said a senior consultant of a state-run medical college preferring anonymity.
A senior administrative official who had worked during the outbreak last year said the reason behind this surge isn’t one-sided. “Last year no one knew what to do and what not to. But after a year, people are aware, but callous and ignore appropriate Covid behaviour.”
A senior district administration official on anonymity said, “Many think that they won’t get infected while others are of the view that they do not require masks and sanitizers as they have already been infected. Police and administration can only ask them to follow the rules and penalise them, but we cannot monitor each individual round-the-clock and check for masks.”