PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, April 26: Following a rise in Covid-19 cases across the country, health experts have predicted that Jharkhand too will begin to witness an uptick as the state government has failed to start the monitoring of passengers coming from states witnessing a surge of Covid cases.
As many as 3,500 passengers travel from Delhi to Ranchi daily, which at present has the maximum number of the active caseload in the state which is 4,168.
But still, the Jharkhand government is waiting for the cases to explode in the city, which will trigger the action process of the government.
Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare Arun Kumar Singh said, “We are keeping a close look over the situation of Covid-19 in the state and in a few days the monitoring system will be seen in the state.”
At the same time, the state’s health department has also failed to release the Covid-19 report for the past 2 days.
Over the issue, when the lagatar24.com correspondent contacted Mission Director – National Health Mission, Jharkhand, Aditya Kumar Anand, he said, “Please contact IDSP cell for the details.”
When the IDSP cell was contacted, they said that the Covid-19 report has been updated on the website. But the recent data which is available on the website is of April 23.
Experts said that this fourth wave triggered due to the XE variant, considered a mutation of Omicron, may not be as lethal as it was when the Delta variant was in circulation. Health practitioners have urged people to maintain all prescribed standard operating procedures in public.
Dr Pradeep Bhattacharya, HOD Critical Care at RIMS said, “The current outbreak of infection is largely due to XE, which is a sub-variant of omicron. Hence it may not be too serious and the infections/symptoms may subside in 3–4 days. Even in places where cases are on the rise the rate of hospitalisation is minimal. Hence, if all goes well the coming we will pass off without causing much damage to public health.”
“The vaccines are playing their role and people have started to take booster doses too. So, even if the search takes place there will not be a major health emergency crisis like we witnessed during the first two waves,” he said, adding that the key will continue to be on early tracing, testing and tracking.