Beware, Covid threat still lurks among us!

India on Thursday recorded a single-day rise of 1,300 new Covid cases, the highest in 140 days, while the active cases have increased to 7,605, the health ministry data says. The total tally of Covid-19 cases has now reached 4.46 crore (4,46,99, 418). The death toll inched to 5,30,816 with three deaths, one each being reported by Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra, the data revealed. That is the overall situation.

We must not forget that Covid is a continuous situation and has not gone away and come back. At best it is lying dormant since it decreased in intensity. The daily positivity rate is recorded as 1.46% while the weekly positivity was pegged at 1.08%. A total 92.06 crore tests for detection of Covid have been conducted so far with 89,078 tests being conducted in the last 24 hours. States are counting their cases and sounding various alerts. Kerala has already announced tests for people coming to the State from abroad while some other states have begun imposing fines against non-compliance of the mask rules.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting on Covid-19 and influenza to review the country's response and preparedness to deal with a rising number of cases of influenza and a slight increase in the number of Covid-19 cases. He sounded the alarm asking States to follow Covid-appropriate behavior and maintain respiratory hygiene. He also emphasized on the need for lab surveillance, genome testing, and testing of all Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases. So far in India, according to the ministry's website, 220.65 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered to the citizens.

The problem is with both the governments and the people. Both have forgotten that Covid is just lurking around and could come back in other forms. Now it is said to be influenza. Life post-Covid-19 cannot be normal as China is witnessing. If we do not learn this simple lesson, we will be doomed. States like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are not even listening to what the Prime Minister or the health ministry are saying, preoccupied as they are with their priorities. For the Telangana government, nothing matters except Kavitha's liquor case and for AP, the outcome of the MLC elections. It is not that the governments are not aware of the Covid situation but just don't care in terms of preparedness of health infrastructure & logistics, status of the vaccination campaign, emergence of new Covid-19 variants & Influenza types and their public health implications for the country.

The high-level review meeting chaired by the PM comes in the backdrop of a spike in Influenza cases in the country & rise of Covid-19 cases in the past 2 weeks. According to the Secretary, Health, India has been witnessing a slight rise in new cases with average daily cases reported as 888 and weekly positivity reported as 0.98% in the week ending March 22, 2023. However, 1.08 lakh daily average cases have been reported globally during the same week. The Centre's stress is on enhancing Whole Genome Sequencing of Positive Samples with the designated INSACOG Genome Sequencing Laboratories. This will support tracking of newer variants, if any, and timely response. Will the Telugu States prepare for the eventualities?