BENGALURU: With a new SARS-CoV2 virus strain being found in the UK, Dr CN Manjunath, member of the Technical Advisory Committee for Covid-19 and Director, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research emphasises how it is important for state to conduct random tests and check if the strain is already present in the community. Excerpts from an interview:
The State Government withdrew the night curfew orders on the expert committee’s suggestions. So, should people be really worried about the new Covid-19 strain or not?
The UK’s new virus strain, according to information available, was seen in many European countries in September itself. Even the WHO also has made a statement that it must already be present in many countries. It has come to the limelight only recently, but it has been there for many months. We will know if it is present in India only when we do genome sequencing for this strain. The only way out of this situation is to not panic, but at the same time, not be complacent too.
The task force on Covid-19 has said we have to watch out for any kind of events in Karnataka where crowds are likely to converge. What does that mean?
We have to be careful about any gathering of crowds. We have to carefully look at these segments like Gram Panchayat elections, Christmas, New Year celebrations, etc., to see what will be the prevalence of this disease in the next one or two weeks. Hopefully, it should not increase.
A sero-survey is being planned in the second week of January. What are some of the significant things to expect from this?
A second sero-survey is planned in all 30 districts of the state and eight zones in Bengaluru too. Roughly, 1,500 people will be randomly screened for antibodies and that will give us an idea about the exposure of this virus. We will test them not only for antibodies (Elisa), which could include those who are already infected, and also simultaneously be doing RT-PCR tests. Then, we will know the disease burden. It may be a good idea to also look for random genome sequencing of non-UK returnees also. That will tell us whether the strain is already present in the community. If that is so, then we don’t really have to worry much.
What about the infrastructure for the vaccine rollout. Are we ready? Which ones are we expecting here?
Yes, we are definitely ready. The Government of India, as per my knowledge, may go with Covaxin and Covishield. Both these vaccines don’t require -70 degrees Celsius storage. In many places, blood banks have ice-lined refrigerators. Airports are getting ready with cold storage units. They have also collected a database of frontline workers and people with vulnerabilities who will be vaccinated in the first phase.
What are the fresh challenges we are facing?
The biggest challenge now is that we should soon focus our attention back to non-Covid care. We have focussed only on Covid care so far and there has been an increase in the number of non-Covid deaths. We can’t afford to ignore that anymore. The maximum number of deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases, kidney and liver diseases, stroke, cancer, etc, because many of these hospitals, specially government hospitals, have been converted into Covid hospitals. Now that the cases have declined, we can keep one-fourth of beds for Covid patients and the rest have to be used for non-Covid cases. Whenever there is a need, we can switch back.
What are your hopes for 2021?
I want the Covid era to end and vaccines should be available for all. I feel that the mental health of people needs attention. I hope there is more focus on physical as well as mental health in 2021.
The Health minister is expecting a revolutionary budget this time. What are your suggestions?
In my opinion, the most important issue is strengthening existing hospitals, medical college hospitals, district hospitals or PHCs with necessary manpower. We need more doctors, nurses and technicians here. Three things one should focus on is monitoring, maintenance and management. This is the key.