COVID-19 in India: India on Tuesday recorded 6,660 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry’s data. Meanwhile, the active caseload currently stands at 63,380, and 4,43,11,078 recovered in the last 24 hours.
Despite being a dip in the daily COVID-19 caseload, health experts have warned against dropping guard for COVID-19, especially among the vulnerable populations. According to the experts, COVID-19 testing is a must for populations with compromised immune systems – like the elderly, or patients with TB, HIV, diabetes, asthma
Doctors are worried because people have started treating cold and flu like symptoms as influenza or have resorted to self-medication.
However, they also warn that all guards should not be let down so quickly as, with ever-increasing variants, the fear of the deadly virus may not be completely gone.
According to data from the health ministry website, the daily positivity rate is at 3.52% and the weekly positivity rate is 5.42%.
According to experts, people should be conscious about new variants and continue with booster doses. Taking precautionary measures will slow down the virus which increases at a faster rate if not taken into consideration. Meanwhile, the effect of the Covid virus on the immune system has increased the number of instances of tuberculosis (TB) after COVID-19. People who had severe comorbidities like tuberculosis, cancer, chronic lung diseases etc mostly succumbed to the infection that leads to death.
“People in India have mostly developed some sort of hybrid immunity either due to vaccination or due to natural infection. But it is still wise to take some sort of precaution, especially if they have flu like symptoms or cough for a pro-longed period,” Vikas Panibatla, CEO at TB Alert India (TBAI) told Financial Express.com.
“The symptoms for COVID, influenza and TB are very similar, hence it is very easy to get confused and miss the actual reason for the stubborn cough. Since we work on the ground with TB patients, we often come across this problem where, because of a lack of testing, the patient’s condition has worsened,” he said.
Most doctors and scientists working in the space believe that the Omicron virus and its sub-variants may not impact India as harshly as the previous COVID-19 waves as a large portion of the Indian population has been exposed to the virus or has received the vaccination.
“There is a definite need for COVID-19 testing, particularly among the vulnerable communities, people with compromised immune systems and comorbidities such as TB, HIV, diabetes, lung health issues, to name a few. Though COVID-19 numbers are down, we cannot let our guard down and must continue to work with communities to ensure awareness and testing,” Blessina Kumar, CEO, Global Coalition for TB Advocates (GCTA) told Financial Express.com.
Arcturus, the new Covid strain is fueling the current surge in COVID-19 cases in India. Some of the worst-hit states have already brought back mandatory face masks to control its rapid spread across the region.
“There is a need to raise awareness for COVID-19 testing among these at-risk populations as we cannot afford to lose more lives. We have closely witnessed that our public healthcare system was unable to keep pace with the incoming patient load for respiratory illnesses, including TB. So it’s best to be in a state of preparedness,” Aarthi Singh Chauhan, COVID-19 ambassador told Financial Express.com.
