Corona may not die soon, but it’s time to kill fear, say experts
Could Turn Endemic And Continue For A Few Years: Doctors
TNN
22.01.2022
Is the end of the Covid pandemic fear near? The Covid-causing coronavirus has stumped experts so often that only a few are willing to give an affirmative reply, but the overwhelming consensus is that “it is time to stop living in fear”.
The pandemic could continue for a “few months more” before transforming into an endemic disease with localised outbreaks for the next few years, said a doctor from a civic hospital. Physician Gautam Bhansali believes cities such as Mumbai should consider Covid-19 as a seasonal flu. “We dealt with the Omicron wave without any stress on health infrastructure, oxygen shortage or crisis of beds. We cannot ignore the fact that 95% of the people who are testing positive are asymptomatic,” he said.
Epidemiologist Dr Jayaprakash Muliyil, who came under fire for equating Omi- cron with the flu, told TOI the fact remains that the new variant spreads like cold and causes a mild disease. In the UK, 70% of people with cold tested positive for Omicron. “In Washington, they looked at 3,340 Omicron positive cases where mortality was zero. Similarly, in California, 53,000 Omicron infections were studied and negligible mortality was found. The third wave has shown that India’s health system can also handle the load,” said Dr Muliyil.Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of the Maharashtra government’s task force on Covid-19, has a different take on the new liberal Covid policies. “The policies adopted by some foreign countries merely mark a shift in policies (rather than the end of Covid),” he said.
Three factors, said Joshi, have brought about these changes: the new wave is relatively mild, large pockets of the world are vaccinated realisation that continued restrictions would be detrimental to the economy and education.
Daily Covid deaths at third-wave high
India reported a slight drop in fresh cases on Friday, with the day's tally likely to stay below 3.4 lakh, but deaths from the virus rose to 407, the highest single-day toll during the present wave, with data from one state yet to come in. Maharashtra posted the highest tally of cases on Friday at 48,270. Fatalities remained high in Delhi (38), Bengal (35), Tamil Nadu and Kerala (33 each).
‘Reinfection a possibility’
Amid the Omicron wave, health experts have not ruled out the possibility of reinfection of the variant among patients, bringing back the focus on Covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccination to check spread and deaths. Meanwhile, the Karnataka government on Friday lifted the weekend curfew with immediate effect.
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