Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 22: The centre has claimed of “positive signs” that the second wave of the Covid cases was “stabilizing” at least in some parts of the country.
The NITI Aayog member (Health) V.K. Paul said at a press conference that there were positive signs of COVID cases stabilising in some areas of the country. “We have to continue working at breaking the transmission,” he added. Paul said the Covid-19 positivity rate has declined from 24.83 percent on 10 May to 12.45 percent on 22 May, the Union health ministry said on Saturday.
Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, while addressing the press meet, said 18 States showed a test positivity of more than 15%. A test positivity between 5% and 15% was prevalent in 14 States.
Eight States had more than one lakh active cases. 20 States in the country had active cases less than 50,000.
382 districts in the country showed a test positivity rate greater than 10%.
The daily rise in Corona cases in India remained below the 3 lakh mark for the sixth consecutive day, with 2.57 lakh new cases recorded in a single day, health ministry data showed.
With the fresh cases, India’s tally of Covid-19 cases climbed to 2,62,89,290. The death toll due to the disease rose to 2,95,525 with 4,194 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The active cases further reduced to 29,23,400 comprising 11.12 per cent of the total infections, while the national recovery rate improved to 87.76 percent.
A total of 18.41 crore vaccine doses have been administered till now, he said. On vaccine wastage, the ministry said Covishield wastage has reduced from 8 percent on 1 March to 1 percent now, while Covaxin wastage decreased from 17 percent to 4 percent in the same period.
Lactating mothers can continue to feed their children after vaccination, Paul said.
Children usually have a mild form of the infection, hence the mortality is less, he said. “But we have to be ready to take care of them at hospitals also and any risk to them has to be taken seriously,” he added.
Paul said steroid abuse was leading to several cases of black fungus.
Lav Aggarwal said talks were on regarding vaccination passport but there was no consensus. “The World Health Organisation (WHO) is looking at it. However, as of now, a negative test is required,” he added.
Meanwhile, some public health experts have expressed reservations about the government’s claim of vaccinating all adult Indians by the end of December. “India ought to realistically expect around a 1.3 billion doses of vaccines from August to December and not the two billion as the centre has projected,” said epidemiologist, public health expert and author Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya said.
In an interview to a section of the media, Dr. Lahariya, who was formerly with the WHO, said there was no evidence so far that a potential third wave would make more children seriously ill with COVID-19.
Several other medical practitioners and experts have warned that a negative COVID report was not the end of the problems associated with the virus. They now say since it affects multiple organs, those who were on mechanical ventilation, ICU or form into any high-risk category of lung fibrosis are the group of people who need to watch out for the need to have a re-admission.
People with diabetes or obesity, prolonged illnesses are also much likely to go back to hospitals with symptoms like breathlessness and decrease in oxygen even after getting negative and discharged from hospital.
Archana Dhawan Bajaj, gynaecologist obstetrician and IVF expert, Nurture IVF, said: “The thrombosis and protein loss due to the virus can lead to delayed recovery. COVID re-infection is rare and people facing re-infection are mainly those with co-morbidities, healthcare workers and frontline workers. Hence, this is something to be watched out in people of these subgroups.”
On the signs to watch out for even after turning negative, Vikas Maurya, director and HOD, Pulmonology, Fortis Hospital, Delhi said COVID is such a disease that causes inflammation in our lungs, kidney, heart etc and eventually all organs affect our blood vessels.
“Therefore, post COVID, people still face extreme weakness in their body and it takes time to fully get over. But those who have mild symptoms can recover a bit faster than those who experience moderate to severe symptoms,” he said.
A Hyderabad-based consultant physician to advised the Covid-recovered patients to avoid outside food, said such patients needed to consult a doctor in case they develop fever, severe cough, chest pain or breathlessness, severe headache and facial pain. “Post COVID illness, some patients may have clots in the brain or lungs hence we need to look out for these symptoms. If they develop eye swelling, facial pain, nose block, we need to evaluate for sinusitis including fungal sinusitis.”
Doctors say recovered persons must follow social distancing, masking and sanitization rules and should not consider themselves immune from the infection.
“Prevention is the best way out as we know there are no wonder drugs to cure COVID,” the doctor said.
Meanwhile, the centre has told the states that the vaccination drive at workplaces could be extended to all employees as well as their dependents and family members.
Vikas Sheel, the Additional Secretary of the National Health Mission, has issued a notification stating, “…Covid-19 vaccination at Workplace (Govt & Private) COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) may be extended to all employees of the workplace.”
The notification further added, “The family members and dependents of the workers, as defined by the respective employers, can also be covered with COVID-19 vaccination at the Industrial CVCs and Workplace CVCs,” it said.
However, the Centre added that for vaccinating beneficiaries in industrial and private CVCs, the vaccine doses will have to be procured by the private hospitals with which the employers tie up for the inoculation drive.
It further stated that in case of government vaccination centres, beneficiaries who are 45 years old or above are eligible to get the jab for free from the among the doses supplied by the Centre to the states and UTs.
However, those in the age group of 18 to 44 should be vaccinated from the doses procured by the respective state and UT governments directly from the manufacturers.