Not in safe zone for poll as Covid cases could rise: Experts
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In wake of the drop in daily Covid-19 cases, health experts have warned it was too early to lower the guard as the slow pace of vaccination along with increased social contacts ahead of assembly election would trigger yet another spike. To be sure the state has reduced the number of Covid patients by 30% when compared to last month and the number of active patients reached a five-month low. However, the rise in cases followed by local body election, in January has prompted the health warning.
“There are two ways to end the pandemic. One is to develop anti-body after recovering from infection and the other is through immunising a large population,” said a public health expert who is a member of a state government-formed Covid-19 core committee. “While preventing infection among a large group was considered an achievement, the delay in getting the susceptible population with vaccine would be undoing of the achievement.”
The vaccination programme started with health workers has found to be effective even when the delivery of second dose has been going on. “There has been a significant drop in the number of health workers getting infected. A study showed that the number of health workers among the daily cases has dropped from 40% to 10-20%,” said Dr Gopikumar P, state secretary of IMA. According to him, there can be a breakthrough only if 60-70% of the population has been inoculated.
However even with the best efforts, the state will not be able to cover the vulnerable population before the poll. It has focussed on covering 2 lakh poll officials though not all will be able to get the second dose before April 6. The immunity against Covid-19 will develop 15 days after the second dose of vaccine. The second dose is taken at least 28 days after the first dose. According to IMA, there are 48 lakh people in the age category of 60 years and above.