Masks, jabs can keep Omicron at bay: Manjunath

NT Exclusive

He is one of the most respected doctors in the country. As head of Dr Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology and Vascular Sciences, he has given a new lease of life to thousands of patients hailing from all over the country. As the Sanskrit saying goes ‘Vaidyo Narayana Hari’ (Doctor is like Vishnu), Dr C.N.Manjunath has won the hearts of lakhs of people through his works. Dr Manjunath is also a member of Covid-19 Task Force Committee. Shyam Sundar Vattam of News Trail spoke to him about the new Covid-19 variant and the measures to be taken by the government and precautions to be followed by the people.

Are you happy with the precaution being taken by the state government to tackle Omicron, a new variant of the Covid-19 virus?

Yes. All over the country precautionary measures have been taken. The Genomic sequencing of the suspected patients is going on. This is the only way to identify the new strain. Now, the advanced lab equipment is available with which the results of Omicron are available within 45 minutes to one hours when compared with three to four days at present. The government is trying to procure this equipment. That is an RT-PCR test only, but it directly gets details of the new variant through testing. Of course, the most important thing is that precaution must be followed by everyone. Wearing a mask, social distancing and the mandatory two doses of vaccine are very important.

Still there is vaccine hesitancy among people? Is it acceptable?

I don’t know why they hesitate when over a billion people have taken the vaccination all over the country. Vaccination is a must as it will certainly modify the course of the disease. We should convince people more and more to take the second dose. In this aspect the Karnataka State has achieved a good vaccination coverage. The second dose coverage is very good in the state to the tune of 66 per cent. So, the target should be achieving 80 per cent in the second dose coverage as that will give a lot of protection. As of now the clinical course of the variant, whatever date available is too early. But according to whatever details available this variant is having a mild to moderate severity among the affected people. Another important thing is that this variant has got mild symptoms in people who have taken two doses of vaccination. This is how we have to go about it.

Is there any confusion among doctors treating the new variant regarding the line of treatment?

I don’t think so. Because, according to experts, the line of treatment does not change. This strain of virus also belongs to the family of the Covid-19 only but with little mutation. However, the line of treatment remains the same with no difference from the earlier strain. Only the transmissibility is said to be high but the severity of the disease is mild only as of now. Even once the new strain was identified and reported in South Africa, a lot of countries resorted to genomic sequencing. As a result, we are hearing more and more Omicron variants being identified in other countries also. Reporting of this strain in South Africa promoted all other countries to do genomic sequencing. So, Omicron is not necessarily imported from South Africa.

Is testing for travellers from abroad a must at the airport?

Yes. It is required for travellers from high-risk nations. Any way the RT-PCR testing is done pre-boarding and later after the arrival at the destination. But the only concern is that since the number of international passengers is huge at the international airports in metro cities, the authorities have to prevent congestion and overcrowding at the immigration point as it could become a spread point. There they have to make the parallel or the make-shift arrangement to do more testing of people. The airport authorities have to make additional counters for testing and that’s now we should go about it.

During the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, you had given a good suggestion for the crowd restriction at Cinema Halls, Malls and Multiplexes. Do you think such measures are required now also?

We have to study this issue probably for a period of one or two weeks because we should not resort to knee-jerk responses. We need to watch out for the next 15 days to see whether there is any sharp increase in the number of new cases and then probably, yes. Now, we can definitely wait for 10-15 days (for taking such strong measures).

In how many days can we understand the severity of the new variant?

As of now the number of cases is still in the single digit. So we have to go by the reports available in other countries like South Africa. Doctors and experts in South Africa have been telling that the severity is mild and those requiring