CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, Dec 23: The data released by the Jharkhand Health Department on December 22 revealed a mere 5 per cent population of Jharkhand has taken the precautionary/booster dose for Covid-19. A total of 19,53,402 persons have taken the precautionary dose out of the 3.73 crore recorded population of Jharkhand.
However, the number of persons administered the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is 1,77,50,916 out of which 6,21,850 are in the 12-14 age group, 10,91,351 in the 15-17 age group and 1,60,37,715 in the 18+ age group.
Meanwhile, amid the fear of covid cases rising in the capital in the coming days due to festival gatherings, not a single dose of the Covishield vaccine is available in the urban centres of the Ranchi district.
According to sources, at present, covid vaccination is being done at 29 places in the district where only doses of covaxin are available. In such a situation, it will be tough to control the surge in covid cases.
Dr Manoj Kumar of the RIMS Microbiology Department said that with the way covid cases are increasing in some countries, people in India and Jharkhand need to be alert. Samples are being examined in the Microbiology Department of RIMS, but no infected patients have been found so far. Genome sequencing will be done on getting an infected patient, only then the variant will be known.
At the same time, Dr Jitendra Kumar of the Microbiology Department of CCL Gandhinagar said that Covid was started in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and 2020, and it started engulfing the whole world.
During that time, Jharkhand also faced four waves of the pandemic. Dr Kumar added that the Flu (virus) becomes active in cold weather and there is also a change in the variant of Coronavirus.
“Wherever the cases of corona are increasing, the new variant of Omicron BF-7 has been found. This is a fast-spreading variant. However, there has been widespread vaccination in India. But it is very important for people to take the booster dose. Only then the infection will be controlled completely,” he said.
The Ministry of Health on Tuesday issued an advisory to the states, asking them to send positive reports for genome sequencing. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also sent a letter to NCDC and ICMR.
In this letter, it has been advised to pay special attention to genome sequencing. Also, it has been advised to test, track, treat, vaccinate and adopt corona-friendly behaviour.
Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya has held a high-level meeting with the officials in view of the increasing cases of Covid.
