PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, April 19: Amid Covid’s 4th wave scare, the Jharkhand government wants to win over the Covid-19 pandemic in a slow and steady mode.
This reflected in the statement of the Additional Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Singh of the Department of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, when asked about the screening of passengers coming from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where Covid-19 cases are gaining peak, he said, “Tumko to pata hi hai, sab dhire-dhire hoga. (You know right that it will be done slowly).”
This slow and steady ideology is also reflected in the purchase of a genome sequencing machine which finally reached Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi after several hurdles on March 29. But the machine has not become operational yet.
However, Jharkhand High Court has time and again rebuked both the Jharkhand government and RIMS to be fast.
The state government leaning into a slow and steady mode is only conducting 5,000 Covid tests daily whereas on the contrary, during the third wave, the number of tests ranged from 50,000 to 70,000 daily.
On this, the health experts believe that the number of covid-19 cases in the state might be different from what is being presented in the health bulletin of the state government as only one-tenth of Covid tests are being done presently in comparison to what was being done earlier in the third wave.
Meanwhile, doctors involved in testing, as well as surveillance, said though the risk factor is low as the virus has weakened, they need to ensure that surveillance must be a priority keeping in mind the fresh variants being reported in other countries as well as in different parts of our own country. The experts also said though curbs have been eased, the surveillance mechanism should be working round the clock due to the opening of international flights as well as unrestricted travel by the people of the state.
On being asked what methods should be taken by the government to ensure that surveillance is rock solid keeping the uninterrupted flow of people visiting from foreign destinations, a health expert said, “Testing is the only way to ascertain the infection as well as the variants, So, the government must take steps and issue guidelines that people, who might be travelling from destinations which have reported BA-2, must go for tests so that we can track people infected with the latest variant.”
In the past few days, Covid-19 cases have shown a rising trend in parts of the country including Delhi, Delhi-NCR and Maharashtra with experts stating that the mild surge could be primarily due to the emergence of mutant variants like Omicron XE and BA-2 which have a high degree of transmissibility.
India has reported 1,247 new Covid cases and 1 death in the last 24 hours, the union health ministry said on Tuesday. The active case tally has risen to 11,860, with a rise of 318 such cases.
