News Analysis India

Tag: Covid curbs

  • Don’t relax Covid norms in a hurry: WHO

    By Express News Service

    BENGALURU: The World Health Organisation has cautioned countries that are opening up to ease Covid-19 curbs at a slow pace, and also be ready to reinstate control measures if the need arises. A sub-variant of the fast-spreading and heavily mutated Omicron strain of the coronavirus, BA.2, has now been predicted to be even more infectious than the original version. It has been detected in as many as 57 countries and is becoming the dominant variant worldwide, infecting nearly 90 million people in only 10 weeks’ time.

    “Many countries are yet to reach their peak in cases of the highly infectious Omicron variant of the coronavirus, and several countries have a large number of the population unvaccinated. So now is not the time to lift everything all at once. We have always urged, always be very cautious, in applying interventions as well as lifting those interventions in a steady and slow way, piece by piece. Because this virus is quite dynamic,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said in an online briefing.

    WHO’s emergencies chief Mike Ryan, addressing the same briefing, said he feared that political pressure might result in some countries reopening their societies prematurely, leading to unnecessary further transmission of Covid-19 and deaths.

    However, in India, the already circulating variant is BA.2 and experts say that several states are yet to peak. Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, vaccine policy expert and epidemiologist, says India will see a quiet gap of at least six months, after this wave. “It is highly unlikely that India will face another wave, like a few countries like South Africa and United Kingdom, where the original Omicron variant was dominating.”

    He says there will be a lull for few months, even if there is a new variant. However, he cautions that people cannot be careless which will help the virus mutate. “Following Covid-appropriate behaviour and expressing caution for a few more weeks is essential. Taking booster shots and both doses of the vaccines is the only way to prevent severity of the disease,” said Dr Gopikrishna V, physician. 

  • Districts with over 10 per cent COVID positivity need to consider strict curbs: Centre

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Districts reporting a COVID-19 positivity rate of over 10 per cent in the last few weeks need to consider strict restrictions to prevent or curtail people’s movement and crowding, the Centre told 10 states witnessing an upsurge in infections and positivity.

    Highlighting that 46 districts are showing more than 10 per cent positivity rate while another 53 are showing positivity between five and 10 per cent, the Centre has urged the states to ramp up their testing for detection of COVID-19.

    The Health Ministry said it was forcefully underlined that any laxity at this stage will result in the deterioration of the situation in these districts.

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    Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level meeting on Saturday to review the COVID-19 situation in Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur.

    The public health measures taken for surveillance, containment and management of COVID-19 by the health authorities in these states were also reviewed. These states are either reporting a rise in daily COVID cases or a rise in positivity.

    The Health Ministry, in a statement, said, “All districts reporting positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the last few weeks need to consider strict restrictions to prevent/curtail the movement of people, formation of crowds and intermingling of people to prevent the spread of infection.”

    Noting that more than 80 per cent of active cases in these states are reported to be in home isolation, it said there is a need to effectively and strictly monitor these cases so that they do not meet other people and spread the infection.

    “The people in home isolation should be effectively monitored in such a manner to ensure that those who require hospitalization are seamlessly transferred for timely clinical treatment. Detailed standard operating procedure covering various facets of effective clinical management of COVID-19 patients in hospitals have been earlier shared with the states for prompt shifting and effective hospital management,” the Centre told states.

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    The ministry also asked states to focus on those districts where the positivity rate is less than 10 per cent, so as to protect these districts and the populations by focusing on saturation of vaccination there. “States were again informed that this quantum of vaccine doses indicates the minimum possible allocation by the Centre to the states; quantum more than this is usually delivered by the Union Health Ministry to states based on their consumption,” the statement said.

    The ministry said the states were advised to direct private hospitals to put up hospital-based PSA plants. “States have been earlier advised regarding this in the past two months. Provisions under the Clinical Establishment Act enable states to issue such direction to private hospitals. For states which have already issued such directions, they were advised to review the status and facilitate the private hospitals further,” it said.

    The Health Ministry also asked states to conduct their own serosurveys for district-wise disease prevalence data, as such a survey at the national level was heterogeneous in nature.

    Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr Balram Bhargava advised states to ramp up vaccination in the senior citizens and the 45-60 year categories as evidence show near 80 per cent of the mortalities are from these vulnerable age groups.

    About enforcement measures, he advised states to avoid all non-essential travel and discourage large gatherings.

    Granular analysis of the highly affected districts in these states, COVID-19 vaccination coverage, the status of ventilators, PSA plants, oxygen cylinders and concentrators along with some key statistics was presented at the meeting.

    The Centre also asked states were asked to use the INSACOG laboratory network for genomic surveillance to screen international travellers, monitor ongoing surveillance through sentinel sites (RT-PCR labs or secondary and tertiary care hospitals managing COVID cases) and surge surveillance.

    States were advised to undertake intensive containment and active surveillance in clusters reporting higher cases, define containment zones based on mapping of cases and contacts traced and undertake regular reviews and follow-up.

    ALSO WATCH | 

  • Illegal to restrain unvaccinated people from earning livelihood: Manipur HC

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: The Manipur High Court has held that restraining people, who are yet to get jabbed, from earning a livelihood is an illegal act of the State.

    “Restraining people, who are yet to get vaccinated from opening institutions, organizations, factories, shops, etc., or denying them their livelihood by linking their employment, be it NREGA job cardholders or workers in government or private projects, to their getting vaccinated would be illegal on the part of the State, if not unconstitutional,” a two-judge bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Kh. Nobin Singh ruled.

    Such a measure would also trample upon the freedom of an individual to get vaccinated or choose not to do so, the bench said.

    The court was hearing a PIL that challenged a notification of the state’s Home Department which said the government proposed to relax curfew/containment zone orders in the future in a calibrated manner by assessing the Covid infection scenario.

    The notification said while opening up, the government, without compromising public health safety, considered it prudent to prioritize opening of institutions, organizations, factories, shops, markets, private offices, etc., where employees and workers were Covid vaccinated. The government further stated that this would also apply to NREGA job cardholders and workers of government/private projects.

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    The court, however, observed that the “prescriptions” appeared to make vaccination mandatory as they favour those who are vaccinated, not only in terms of prioritizing the opening up of their institutions, organizations, etc. but also by linking vaccination as a condition precedent for employment of NREGA job cardholders and workers in government and private projects.

    “…The objective of the government is to ensure a degree of immunity in the people, at least to the extent of preventing dire consequences, if infected. However, the ground reality is that there is abounding ignorance amongst the people as to the side effects, if any, of the vaccination and in consequence, apprehensions of the risks that may ensue upon being vaccinated,” the court said.

    It further said that it is for the state government to dispel such fears by educating people on the advantages of vaccination and erase their apprehension on the adverse consequences of getting vaccinated.

    “Without addressing this issue, the State cannot seek to impose conditions upon the citizens so as to compel them to get vaccinated, be it by holding out a threat or by putting them at a disadvantage for failing to get vaccinated,” the court said.

    Additional Advocate General, who represented the state government, told the court the impugned notification was merely an expression of intention by the government on what it proposed to do once relaxation of curfew/containment zone orders are resorted to.