NEW DELHI: Amid a jump in Omicron cases in the city, doctors on Friday, December 17, 2021, said people should avoid all gatherings and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, else the pandemic situation may worsen, given the highly transmissible nature of the virus.
Health experts and doctors said a ‘sense of complacency’ has again crept in, despite witnessing the ‘horrors of the second wave’ of Covid infections earlier this year. The rise in Omicron cases comes ahead of Christmas and New Year, occasions which see massive gatherings of people in public.
“Omicron is highly transmissible. The first thing people need to do is avoid all gatherings of any form and follow all Covid-appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks, following social distancing, using sanitiser and not become lax at all,” a senior doctor at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital she said.
“We saw the same laxity among people then and seeing it now again. Even though almost all families saw the death of near and dear ones or heard of someone losing their family members, it seems we still haven’t learnt any lessons,” said Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, a senior consultant at Apollo Hospitals.
Prisons Raise awareness on vaccination among inmates
Amid escalating concerns over the Omicron variant, Delhi prisons authorities have said they are ramping up anti-coronavirus measures and have decided to raise awareness about vaccines among inmates and isolate those showing symptoms of an Influenza-like illness. According to the latest official order, all staff of the three Delhi prisons — Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini — have been directed to emphasise to inmates the need to get vaccinated. At present, the three Delhi prisons have a total of 18,500 inmates, officials said.