Follow norms to avert severity of third wave: Health dept

Ranchi: The state health department has urged the citizens to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour in order to contain the spread of coronavirus in case the third wave strikes the country.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, the officer on special duty to state health department, Siddarth Tripathy, said, “We all have witnessed how devastating the second wave was and a big reason behind the spread was negligence by the citizens in maintaining the safety norms. So I urge all the citizens to continue following Covid-appropriate behaviour as we want to contain the spread during third wave.”
The appeal comes after the Niti Aayog conducted a meeting with the health secretaries via video conferencing where the Union cabinet secretary directed the states to take measures to ensure Covid-appropriate behaviour as experts have predicted that negligence will play a major role in the spread of virus during a third wave.
Tripathy quoted the data provided during the meeting which stated that India had reported a total of 97,860 Covid cases in its highest single-day spike during the first wave in September last year and 4,12,624 cases were reported in May this year. “During the meeting experts have said that people behaviour will play an important role in the spread during third wave and there are chances that the highest spike could cross even 5 lakh,” he said.
TOI also spoke to experts and they too said that Covid-appropriate behaviour is very essential in controlling the spread. However, they also added that the findings of sero-prevalence surveillance and vaccination has given positive signs as the population is headed towards herd immunity.
Talking to TOI, public health expert and professor of community medicine at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences Dr Dewesh Kumar said, “The Covid-appropriate behaviour will surely play an important role in checking the spread of the virus and no one can deny the fact that we wouldn’t face a third wave because it is in the nature of virus to mutate. However, we cannot comment on the severity of the upcoming wave as people are developing herd immunity and the findings of the serosurveillance conducted across various districts have reflected that a major chunk of population has developed antibodies. If we continue to scale up our vaccination drive we will be able to immunise more and more population. Having said that those who haven’t been infected need to be careful as they can become super-spreaders after getting infected.”