India medical body says no to reopening tourism
Opening tourist sites, allowing pilgrimage travel could act as virus ‘super spreaders;’ India sees 37,154 new cases and 724 deaths; Kerala to conduct survey to determine spread of virus among kids
Opening India’s tourist destinations and allowing pilgrimage travel could act as COVID-19 “super spreaders” of a third wave of infections, the country’s top doctor’s body warned on Monday.
After a catastrophic second wave, driven largely by the more infectious and dangerous Delta variant, ravaged the country’s health system, India is now reporting roughly a tenth of its peak daily numbers in May.
But experts worry that a third wave of infections is not far off as travel restrictions are eased in various parts of the country.
On Monday, the Indian Medical Association, India’s top doctor’s body, appealed to state governments and citizens to not lower their guard against COVID-19, saying a third wave was inevitable.
“It is painful to note, in this crucial time... in many parts of the country, both government and public are complacent and engaged in mass gatherings without following COVID protocols,” the IMA said in a press release.
The comments from the IMA echoed those from senior government officials, who have urged citizens to avoid crowding at tourist places and cautioned that the second coronavirus wave is not yet over.
“Tourist bonanza, pilgrimage travel, religious fervour are all needed, but can wait for few more months,” the IMA said, adding that opening up for these rituals and enabling unvaccinated people to go to these mass gatherings are “potential super spreaders for the COVID third wave.”
India on Monday reported 37,154 new COVID-19 cases and 724 new deaths in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed, compared to the peak of over 400,000 infections a day in May.
The country has reported a COVID-19 death toll of over 408,000, the third highest in the world.
The pace of India’s vaccination drive has also slowed down, with roughly 8% of the 950 million eligible adult population fully vaccinated. The country had vaccinated 3.7 million people on Monday as of 1240 GMT.
Meanwhile, Kerala has decided to conduct a survey to determine the spread of COVID-19 among children in the state.
Youngsters below the age of 18 years will be included in the sero survey to be carried out across all the 14 districts next month to study the impact of the second wave of the pandemic, according to state health department.
Children were left out in the previous sero surveys of either the central or the state government.
In a sero prevalence survey, antibody tests are conducted to estimate the percentage of people in a population who have developed antibodies against Cornonavirus, SARS-COV-2, that causes COVID-19.
According to available statistics, health experts have not observed any serious complications in children infected by COVID-19.
However, doctors say youngsters could still be carriers of the disease. In fact, as per official Kerala government data, there were a mere 23 fatalities below the age of 17 among the 14,413 deaths from COVID-19 in the state.
With experts warning that the third wave of the pandemic would hit kids the most, Kerala has decided to find out how many children could have already been infected by the disease.
Sero surveys among children have been carried out in some other regions like Mumbai. In Mumbai, antibodies were discovered in 51 per cent of the surveyed kids and a study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in five states had thrown up a figure of 55.7 per cent.
Kerala recorded 7,798 COVID-19 positive cases on Monday, taking state’s daily Test Positivity Rate (TPR) to below 10 per cent for the first time in July. After testing 85,307 samples, the TPR came down to 9.14 per cent from Sunday’s 10.48 per cent. This is the lowest since April 9. With 11,447 more recovering from the infection, the number active patients in the state came down to 111,093, Minister for Health Veena George said in a press release.
Toll rose to 14,686 with 100 more deaths reported on Monday.