KOLKATA: The second Covid wave has seen entire families getting infected, rather than one or two members that had been the case during the first wave. This new phenomenon is not restricted to the city and its surroundings. Even hospitals in the districts are getting an increasing number of such cases. Doctors have blamed high infectivity behind the trend this time.
A doctor at the Covid ward of state-run MR Bangur Hospital saw a 60-year-old patient breaking down while talking to someone over the phone. The doctor went to the patient to remind him that he was supposed to wear the mask and also to find out why he was howling. “I found out that the patient’s entire family of three had been infected and he just got the information that his son in his late 20s had died during treatment,” said the doctor.
“An elderly couple from Howrah got infected along with their son and daughter. While the couple who had been vaccinated with their first dose and the daughter could be managed in the general ward, the son who is in his early 40s had to be managed in the critical care section,” said Saswati Sinha, critical care specialist at AMRI Hospitals, Dhakuria.
“We have had a few cases of entire family getting infected in the past couple of weeks, including a four-year-old kid who got infected along with their parents. This is the reason we have been propagating the need to stay cautious. The need is even more important on the face of this onslaught,” said paediatrician Raj Shekhar Maity, nodal officer for Covid care at Diamond Harbour Medical College.
Health experts felt the infection could have been brought home by a member who regularly goes out of home but had not been adhering to
Covid-19 prevention norms like a wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and sanitizing hands regularly. For example, in case of the MR Bangur case, the son had played Holi with friends and started throwing up symptoms a few days after the festival.
“During the previous wave, people were more conscious about adhering to the Covid-appropriate behaviour. Now, everyone has thrown caution to the wind as if the virus does not exist any longer. With a virus that is more infective, it is only obvious that people in close proximity of an infected person, neither of whom is taking preacaution, are contracting the virus,” said infectious diseases specialist Yogiraj Raj.