Visakhapatnam: We're like this only!

Visakhapatnam: Notwithstanding the harsh lessons learnt during the first and the current second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is overcrowding again as usual in various parts of the city as the curfew hours got eased.

People continue to throng places like Rythu Bazars, shanties, Beach Road, retail stores, shopping malls, liquor outlets and meat shops.

Unmindful of social distancing, following safety etiquettes took a backseat and wearing of masks became a 'passe'. The biggest challenge now lies in how long it will take before the district grapples with another wave of the pandemic.

While the district administration is taking a big leap towards hospital preparedness, increasing the beds with oxygen supply and ventilators, experts say that the public behaviour is the key to control the third wave of the Covid-19.

"The other primary factors include the variants and the percentage of people getting inoculated. These are the top determinants of the third wave," explains PV Sudhakar, District Covid Special Officer and Principal of Andhra Medical College (AMC).

After a long time, since people were locked indoors due to the curfew restrictions, Dr Sudhakar opines, the public behaviour is bound to go astray once the curfew gets eased. "Though some have genuine reasons to come out of their houses, in most cases there will not be any particular reason to step out and that too in large numbers," the AMC Principal observes. 

He recommends staggered timings to visit markets so that crowding can largely be avoided.

Penalising the violators is another means to optimise Covid appropriate behaviour among people, the health officials suggest.

Thankfully, the meat shops were kept closed during weekends for almost a month, starting from the last Sunday of May till the third weekend of June. "The corporation's main objective was to go for a month-long weekend closure of the meat shops to control overcrowding. But since Sunday remained closed, the gathering became unbearable on Saturdays," says KSLG Sastry, Chief Medical Officer of Health, GVMC.

Besides, the strict enforcement of partial curfew across the district have kept the daily caseload substantially under check in the past few months.

On Sunday, the positivity rate in Visakhapatnam recorded an all-time low of 2.2 percent.

The health officials plan to bring it to below one percent. And for this to become a reality, they say, public behaviour plays an imperative part.