Curb religious events, rallies for a year to stem third Covid wave in Karnataka: Expert

KEY STORY

• Karnataka needs to live without elections, rallies and religious events for one more year to prevent a third wave of Covid-19 in the state, warned Dr V Ravi, renowned virologist, Nodal Officer for Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 and also member of Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19.

• He was speaking at a webinar organised by the Karnataka Women Journalist’s Association (KWJA).

• Warning that the country should have no doubt about the coming of the third and multiple such waves, he said the government needs to be prepared, not just at the state level, but also at district- level, as each district will peak at different times.

• Children and those adults who are not infected till now will be vulnerable in the next wave, he warned.

• “The new committee to tackle this wave is working at the ground level. But the State Government should ensure that there are enough trained paediatricians. We don’t have many in the state. Also, NICUs, paediatric Covid care centres should be set up in every taluk. Some of the dangerous diseases like MIS-C should be taken care of,” he said.

• Speaking about variants of concerns, he said that there are all possibilities that new variants will occur and one has to be prepared, assuming that the new variants will come.

• The genome sequencing of Covid virus in circulation in Karnataka in the second wave since March has revealed that the double mutant, which was first found in Maharashtra (B.1.617), has taken over even the UK variant (B.1.1.7) and these two have virtually obliterated the previous strain dominant in the state (B.1.36.29).

CONCLUSION

• He said India will add 17 new laboratories to the Indian Sars-COV-2 Genomics Consortium (Insacog) network to ramp up genome sequencing.

• Meanwhile, he also said that those who are already infected with Covid- 19 should wait for three months before taking the vaccine as the person will have natural antibodies.

• However, both doses of the vaccine must be taken after recovering from Covid-19, he said.He added that all the vaccines available in the country are safe and more importantly, people should follow “social vaccine” which is right masking, social distancing and staying hygenic.