With no letup in the coronavirus cases whose numbers have crossed over 1.60 lakhs and with over 4,000 mortalities, Dr K Vijayraghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser on Thursday suggested that five measures should be taken to prevent spread of Covid-19 , till the time its vaccine is developed. These are maintaining hygiene, surface cleaning, physical distancing, tracking and testing in the absence of drugs and vaccine, he said at a Press briefing here.
“The disease spreads as our immune response takes a little longer and the virus by that time overwhelmes us. The vaccine is given to those who are not infected, that’s why safety is important. It usually takes 10 to 15 years to develop vaccines at a cost of 200-300 million dollars.
However, the five steps suggested by the senior scientist to keep the covid-19 at bay elude densely populated countries like India which has most of its people living below poverty line, people have poor hygiene habits because of many reasons and have the lowest Covid-19 testing rate per million in the world.
The migration of workers as well as arrivals of stranded Indians from abroad coupled with the easing of the lockdown has just added to the mounting tally of the cases.
In fact, experts say that the cases are likely to witness sharp spike in near future. Dr V Ravi, Head of Neurovirology, National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) and nodal officer in the Karnataka Health Task Force for COVID-19 cautioned that there will be a spike in COVID-19 cases after Lockdown 4.0 ends which is after May 31, 2020.
“The country has not yet witnessed the spike in cases. The numbers will go up from June onwards after Lockdown 4.0 ends on May 31, and there will be community spread,” he said as per a report.
Dr Ghanshyam Pangtey, professor at the medicine department at Lady Hardinge Medical College had told a news agency that once the virus covers up to 30 per cent of population, possibly in the next four to five months, the situation will become very difficult to handle with the limited resources.
According to the Union Health Ministry, number of cases under active medical supervision is 86,110. So far, a total of 67,691 people has been cured. In the last 24 hours, 3,266 patients were found cured. This takes our total recovery rate to 42.75 per cent, said a statement issued here by the Ministry. Also, India’s fatality rate is much lower than the world average of 6.36 per cent, it said.
