As India battles an upward climb in coronavirus cases, goaded by the Omicron variant, experts are of the opinion that the next two weeks will be crucial for the country in the fight against what many have termed the third wave of Covid-19.
Cautioning that health systems could get overwhelmed, Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the WHO, said “India could have a big surge. The next two weeks will tell us.”
On Twitter, Swaminathan said: “Omicron is not the common cold. Health systems can get overwhelmed. Important to have systems to test, advise and monitor a large number of patients as the surge can be sudden and huge.”
India on Tuesday reported over 54,000 new Covid-19 cases. Speaking to The Economic Times, senior epidemiologist Giridhara Babu said the modelling projections indicate a likely peak in the period between the last week of January and first week of February. He added that the country was better prepared compared to the Delta wave when India saw multiple casualties and a crumbling health infrastructure.
Maharashtra and Delhi continue to be the worst-hit states with this new variant. As numbers start to go up, doctors are calling on people to wear masks as they say the virus spreads like a “wildfire”.
Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain on Monday said that genome sequencing reports show the Omicron variant has been found in 84% of the samples tested.
There have also been calls to discard cloth masks or use them with a disposable mask underneath and multiple layers on top as experts say a snug fit is the only solution to a variant that is more transmissible.
The Centre too has alerted states and UTs that the new variant is three times more transmissible than the highly infectious Delta variant. In a letter, union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan advised states to activate war rooms, keep analysing all trends and surges, no matter how small and keep taking proactive action at district or local levels.
The Centre has asked states to focus on “strategic areas of intervention”, including containment, testing, tracking, surveillance, clinical management, vaccination and following Covid-appropriate norms. It has also asked states to strengthen health infrastructure in case of a sudden surge and stressed on increasing bed capacity, ambulances, “mechanism for seamless shifting of patients, availability and operational readiness of oxygen equipment, a buffer stock of drugs”.
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