{"id":38408,"date":"2021-05-28T10:24:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T04:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=38408"},"modified":"2021-05-28T10:24:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T04:54:51","slug":"june-end-to-see-sharp-fall-in-covid-cases-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=38408","title":{"rendered":"June-end to see sharp fall in Covid cases: Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Says Covid to stay for generations<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

BENGALURU:<\/em><\/strong> Like the flu, Covid-19 is here to stay for generations, according to the director of the Indian Institute of Public Health Hyderabad, professor GVS Murthy.<\/em>
\nAvailable data from different states suggests that June-end may see a significant downward spiral in Covid-19 cases in south and west India, he said.<\/em>
\n\u201cIn north and east India, it may be mid-July for a significant decrease in the cases\u201d, Murthy said on Thursday.<\/em>
\nAllowing political, social and religious gatherings too early in the life of the pandemic is one of the prime reasons for the rapid fueling of cases in the second wave, according to him.<\/em>
\nDespite signals emerging from February that we could see an upswing of cases, prompt public health response was lacking, he said, adding this is because public health professionals have not been engaged in the response.<\/em>
\n\u201cIn all countries where the Covid-19 response was quick and need-based, there was authority and responsibility vested in the public health leadership. Unfortunately, the same was not seen in India where it was more of a non-public health or political response,\u201d Murthy said.<\/em>
\nHe said Covid-19 is here to stay with us for a long time.<\/em>
\nAn infectious agent once introduced into the community, continues to simmer and lead to localised outbreaks.<\/em>
\n\u201cFlu has been with us for generations now and the same will be the case with Covid-19,\u201d he said.<\/em>
\nHe is of the view that outbreaks will occur whenever a large number of people susceptible to the infection are available.<\/em>
\n\u201cWe know that post the Covid-19 infection, immunity is only for a short duration of 3-6 months, after which the same person is vulnerable to getting reinfected. The reinfection will depend on the viral load to which the susceptible person is exposed to.<\/em>
\nWe have seen some chief ministers and national leaders also getting infected a second time. So nobody is permanently immune,\u201d Murthy said.<\/em>
\nAccording to him, it will take five to six months for the next Covid-19 wave to occur as, by then, the population immunity will once again wane off.<\/em>
\n\u201cSo November could again be a worrying time\u201d.<\/em>
\nIn pandemics, it is the older and more infirm people who succumb first, but with each succeeding wave, more of the middle-aged and younger people, including children, get infected.<\/em>
\nThis is the danger of the next wave, he said.<\/em>
\n\u201cIf the country can vaccinate more than 80 per cent of those above 30 years of age by November, we will be able to mount an effective challenge to the spread of Covid,\u201d Murthy said.<\/em>
\nAt the same time, efforts should be made to field-test available vaccines in children so that if possible, the vaccine can be added to the \u2018Universal Programme of Immunisation\u2019 in the country.<\/em>
\nHe underlined that there needs to be a continued ban on large gatherings till February 2022 if we have to reduce the risk.<\/em>
\nSchools and offices can be opened up with adequate precautions.<\/em>
\n\u201cIf the country does not create a public health cadre with adequate decision-making authority being vested in them, from the district-level onwards, we will always be playing a catch-up game rather than planning proactively with adequate projections and data,\u201d he said. PTI<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Says Covid to stay for generations BENGALURU: Like the flu, Covid-19 is here to stay for generations, according to the director of the Indian Institute of Public Health Hyderabad, professor GVS Murthy. Available data from different states suggests that June-end may see a significant downward spiral in Covid-19 cases in south and west India, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}