Covid: Time for caution

Is Covid going to make a comeback? That’s the fear uppermost on most people’s minds as the southern state of Kerala recorded more than 200 cases and also detected the presence of a Covid sub-variant, JN.1, prevalent in other parts of the world.

There have also been a few deaths but as the Kerala health minister remarked, there is no cause for serious worry as the sub-variant had been present in other parts of the country and the world for some time.

This however does not mean that there is any room for complacency. Karnataka has reacted rightly to news about the increase in case in the neighbouring state by planning mock drills at hospitals to check the level of preparedness in case the cases go up.

The possibility however looks remote as this is not 2021, when the horrendous second wave of Covid hit the country killing thousands.

Few people were vaccinated than but in the ensuing two or more years, most Indians have been vaccinated thrice or at least twice against Covid, thanks to a massive vaccination drive undertaken by the government.

This provided us a certain degree of immunity to the disease and this could be the reason why we have not seen Covid waves of the scale witnessed earlier in other parts of the world since the 2021 outbreak.

There have been smaller outbreaks in 2022 but nothing of the kind which we witnessed in the second wave.

And therefore, for good or bad, most Indians have been pushed into a sense of complacency if one may call it that after discarding their masks and sanitisers assuming that Covid was gone for good and they could breathe easy.

The minor ‘quake’ from God’s Own Country, goes to prove that the disease is still lurking in the shadows, waiting to take advantage of our drop in immunity levels and then strike.

There were reports earlier that Covid has become endemic in the population and may occur in spurts though not in alarming proportions like in earlier years and that seems to be the case now too.

It also points to the need for the government and health agencies concerned to come up with updated methods to deal with the disease.

The government should also made sure that the vaccination programme continues like ever and those who remain unprotected, are made to go to vaccination centres so that they get that life-saving jab.

Close monitoring of the cases and the degree of illness besides details of the drugs which prove to be most effective in countering it, need to be gathered so that we are prepared for any eventuality.

Eternal vigilance, as the saying goes, is the price of liberty and that is most needed in tough times when wars and pandemics have become the order of the day and peace and calm have become distant memories.

The younger generation still carry bad memories of the 2-3 years when they were confined to their homes and restricted to online learning.

Workers, migrants and others recall with a shiver those tumultuous times when they had to flee for their home land deserting their places of work and giving up their jobs as the virus struck at will.

Business houses collapsed and life went haywire as the government struggled to deal with the deaths and the extent of loss which hit many Indian homes.