‘The second wave may be bigger than first one, if we remain careless’
Those who used to maintain health guidelines before have stopped doing that, thinking that since they have been vaccinated, they are safe. As a result, they are being infected and at the same time, they are infecting others
Fluctuations in the infection rate depend on the attitude and behaviour of the population in a society.
When the infection rate of Covid-19 comes down, in all countries, people go into a state of relaxation and they begin to care little about maintaining health guidelines.
As a result, the infection rate begins to increase again. And this is what has happened to our country.
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It is true that it is not possible for all of us to remain home all the time because we have to work and earn our livelihood.
However, when we are going out, we are not maintaining health guidelines anymore.
This time a new thing has been added to the scenario.
Those who used to maintain the health guidelines before have stopped doing so, thinking that since they have been vaccinated, they are safe.
As a result, they are being infected and at the same time, they are infecting others.
Another reason behind the spike in infection rate is that many people are nowadays attending indoor social events without wearing masks.
As these social events are being held in congested rooms and restaurants in the middle of summer, they need to turn on electric fans or air conditioners. The trapped air gets contaminated and the virus is easily transmitted from one person to another.
We do not know yet whether any new variant of Covid-19 is responsible for the infection this time.
The variant that came from the UK in January has already been followed up and contained successfully. That did not spread anymore.
We are in the process of genome sequencing to see if we have any home-grown new variants in our country. We will be able to come to a conclusion after the completion of the process.
Now more than 1,000 people are testing positive for Covid-19 every day.
We need to follow up on these people, whether they are being isolated or not, whether they are being treated or not. We have to help them during this difficult time.
As everything has reopened, one cannot remain at home, until or unless he or she is seriously ill.
As a result, they are going to continue going to work after taking say, paracetamol tablets, thus increasing the infection.
We will have to help these people, especially those from the lower-income groups, with food and assurance that he or she will not be fired from their jobs.
If we fail to do this, it would not be possible to bring down the number of infections.
Last November, in the middle of winter, we witnessed people being very cautious about the second wave of the infection.
They were seen maintaining health guidelines religiously and it helped to bring down the infection rate.
We can still do it. It is still possible to contain the infections.
We have to ensure proper quarantine and isolation for the infected group.
Otherwise, the infection will spread to a great extent. The second wave may be bigger than the first wave.
We succeeded in thwarting the first wave, which was not that big.
We have to take a targeted approach immediately. If need be, the places where the rate of infection is higher, we have to cordon them off to contain the spread.
The government will now need to withdraw the Covid-19 test fees.
Although the test fee is low, we want the government to allow people to get tested free of cost so that people from all walks of life can get tested if they catch a fever and have Covid-19 symptoms.
We will have to make sure the infected people get the scope of isolation too.
Even though infected people are being followed up, this is not sufficient.
The government will have to make sure that the severely infected people can avail ambulances to go to hospitals.
The government will also have to quarantine those who came in contact with infected people.
Besides raising awareness about maintaining health guidelines, we have to make sure that the crowded places have sufficient ventilation, especially markets and offices.
We also need to speed up the vaccination process. When people will take vaccines, the chance of going to hospital will decrease significantly. The pressure on the hospitals will come down.
