BHUBANESWAR: The Central guidelines asking the states to adopt calibrated approach while unlocking and enforce the Covid norms notwithstanding, health experts were baffled at the casual and irresponsible statements of Odisha health authorities that may lead to complacency among people.
At a time when virologists and epidemiologists have indicated that a third wave of coronavirus is inevitable with many states easing the Covid-related restrictions leading to unrestricted crowding of markets, Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Prof CBK Mohanty allayed the fears of the next wave.
“The government is prepared for the third wave. But our preparedness doesn’t mean that the State is definitely going to face the third wave. It is just a prediction and people should not panic,” he said. Asked about the new Delta plus variant of Sars-CoV-2, Prof Mohanty said of the 63 samples detected with delta plus variant in the world till June 7, only six were reported from the country. If the number of new variant is compared with the world data, is there any reason to be scared, he asked.
In April when the State was recording over 8,000 cases a day, he had quoted controversy by claiming that the Covid curve was flattening. The State had a peak number of 12,852 on May 22.
While the entire country is apprehending a more ferocious third wave as people don’t give a hoot to the Covid norms, health experts reacted sharply to such an ‘irresponsible’ statement, which will make people more complacent, from a top health official. Before the second wave, the experts said the government had claimed to have been ready to face the challenges.
But as cases piled up, mismanagement in testing, getting beds, oxygen and proper treatment came to the fore exposing the slack preparedness, they alleged. Top microbiologist Dr Tribhuban Mohan Mohapatra said the Delta variant (previous variant of Delta plus) was detected much before the brutal second wave. Had it been taken seriously then, the consequences could have been different. The DMET might have told this not to scare people, but officials should not communicate in such a way that would make people relaxed especially when the administration is at the receiving end for the insensitive behaviour of people, he said.
Dean (Research) of AIIMS- Bhubaneswar Dr Binod Patro said the third wave is inevitable though the scale and age group to be affected is yet to be seen. “As we start the unlock process, utmost care should be in place to focus on continuation of Covid appropriate behaviour among the population and ramp up the vaccination coverage,” he added. The State on Saturday reported 3,427 more new cases and 42 fresh fatalities taking the tally to 8,73,925 and death toll to 3,550. The State now has 35,190 active cases.
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