New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association expressed concern on Monday, July 12, over governments and people getting complacent and engaging in mass gatherings without following COVID-19 protocols, saying these events are potential super spreaders for a third wave of the pandemic.
The Indian Medical Association’s Uttarakhand chapter has also written to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami requesting him to cancel the Kanwar Yatra this year for public safety.
Stressing that tourist bonanza, pilgrimage travel, religious fervour are needed, but can wait for a few more months, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), in a statement, said global evidence and the history of any pandemic suggest that “the third wave is inevitable and imminent”.
“However, it is painful to note that in this crucial time, when everyone needs to work for the mitigation of the third wave, in many parts of the country, both governments and the public are complacent and engaged in mass gatherings without following Covid protocols. Tourist bonanza, pilgrimage travel, religious fervour, all are needed, but can wait for a few more months.
“Opening up these rituals and enabling people without vaccination to go scot-free in these mass gatherings are potential super spreaders for the Covid third wave,” the IMA said.
IMA HQs. Press Release 12.07.2021 pic.twitter.com/ZhmbpezPUD
— Indian Medical Association (@IMAIndiaOrg) July 12, 2021
The statement by the doctors’ comes on a day when the annual Rath Yatra began in Puri and amid talks of allowing the “Kanwar Yatra” in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Uttarakhand had initially called off the fortnight-long Kanwar Yatra that begins with the onset of the month of Shravan around July 25 and goes on till the first week of August sees crores of Kanwariyas from neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh gathering in Haridwar to collect the holy waters of the Ganga.
However, a final decision on giving go-ahead will be taken in consultation with neighbouring states including UP, Haryana and others, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has said. Recently, Uttar Pradesh had announced that it would go ahead with the Kanwar Yatra.
Significantly, the Kumbh Mela – held in March and April when numbers where already on the rise – and where millions gathered without masks and social distancing, acted as a harbinger of the second wave of the pandemic in India.
The IMA appealed to all the states to control mass gatherings.
Based on the experience of the last one-and-a-half years of the war with the virus and the emerging evidence, it is obvious that by making the universal vaccination drive reach the maximum number of people and strictly following COVID-appropriate behaviour, people can face the third wave with confidence and mitigate its impact, the doctors’ body said.
“The consequences of treating a patient with Covid in a hospital and its impacts on the economy will be much better than the economic loss we suffer by avoiding such mass gatherings. It is the duty and responsibility of everyone at this moment to strictly enforce Covid-appropriate behaviour for minimum three more months and ensure that everyone near our houses is getting vaccinated,” the statement said.
(With PTI inputs)