Telangana: Tough curbs must to halt third wave

Hyderabad: Telangana is not yet free from the second wave. Nine districts in the State are witnessing a spike in the number of Covid positive cases. On the top of it, the Delta plus variant seems to be knocking at the doors of the State. Health experts and Director Health Services Dr G Srinivas on Saturday cautioned people not to lower the guard. He expressed concern over many people not wearing masks properly and not maintaining social distancing.

In the backdrop of this, the State Medical and Health department has come out with a proposal to permit only those who carry a certificate that they had successfully taken both doses of the corona vaccine to enter shopping malls, hotels and other important public places. They too should wear masks and keep sanitising their hands frequently.

The Health Director said that the border districts have already been alerted and the proposal to conduct screening and testing at airports, railway stations and inter-district bus stations was also under active consideration. The Health authorities say that people should realise that the outbreak of third wave may happen anytime if people are careless. "We are seeing how a surge of cases has been seen again in Kerala," said an official. The Health officials and doctors say that people should not go by sentiments and hold big gatherings in the name of functions. They should also understand that vaccination alone cannot be 100 per cent protection as the virus is taking new mutations. Vaccination would help in reducing the seriousness of the cases.

The government, they say, should go in for tracking and tracing of cases in Khammam, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Medchal, Jagityal, Peddapally, Rangareddy, Bhadradri – Kothagudem and Suryapet where there has been surge in the cases. They suggest that even genome sequencing should be done to find out if it was the Delta plus variant or some other variant like AY 1,2, 3. The AY variant cases have been found in large numbers in the US where the fatality rate was said to be high. The action plan to contain the virus spread would be enforced in a phased manner depending on the increase of the number of positive cases reported in August and September. Required medical infrastructure was already developed to tackle the health emergency in case the State suffers from the third wave of pandemic, the Health Director said.