Is Third Wave Close? Cases Surge As People Become Lax About Covid Norms With Restrictions Easing

The Centre has issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to facilitate vaccination of eligible beneficiaries who do not possess the prescribed photo ID documents.

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New Delhi: An alarming number of people are seen getting careless with Covid protocols, while some are 'revenge traveling' others have almost stopped social distancing or even wearing a mask. The Lok Sabha on Friday informed easing of lockdown combined with pandemic fatigue, lack of community adherence to Covid-appropriate behavior, and circulation of more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 can be attributed to the surge in new cases in some states and union territories.

As a response, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in writing that according to the WHO, there is some evidence to indicate higher transmissibility for cases infected with variants of SARS-CoV-2 like Delta and Delta plus.

"The ministry of health after expert deliberations has concluded that the existing clinical management protocol for managing COVID-19 cases suffices for treatment of cases infected with variants of COVID-19 and doesn't warrant any change," she was quoted by PTI.

Pawar was responding to a question on whether new strains like Delta plus and Lambda are more infectious and the reasons for the recent surge in coronavirus cases in some states and UTs including Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Manipur.

Measures for a possible third wave

Talking about the steps taken by the government for urgent control and containment measures of the disease, Pawar said, although health is a state subject, the Union government has provided the required technical support and also provided logistic and financial support to the states to further strengthen the existing health infrastructure to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

A three-tier arrangement of dedicated COVID-19 health facilities (i) COVID Care Center (CCC); (ii) Dedicated Covid Health Centre (DCHC) and (iii) Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH) has been implemented in the country to reduce the risk of cross-infection to non-COVID patients as well as to maintain continuity of non-COVID essential health services in the country, Pawar said.

The isolation bed capacity and ICU bed capacity were also enhanced continuously, she further said, the daily liquid medical oxygen (LMO) supply was increased by enhancement of LMO production in steel as well as other plants. Further, restrictions were also imposed on the industrial use of oxygen.

A Covid Drugs Management Cell (CDMC) has been set up in the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) to oversee the management of smooth supply of drugs used in COVID-19 management, the minister said.

Undocumented vaccinated people 

Under the National Covid Vaccination Programme, the Union government is procuring vaccines and providing them free of cost to states and UTs. As on July 25, a total of about 44.91 crore doses have been supplied to the states and UTs from all sources.

Pawar also brought to notice that, as many as 3.83 lakh people without any photo ID documents have been vaccinated through Co-WIN till July 26th. All beneficiaries who have received vaccines in India are registered on the Co-WIN portal, she said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

The Centre has issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to facilitate vaccination of eligible beneficiaries who do not possess the prescribed photo ID documents. Registration and vaccination of people without access to digital technology can be done through walk-in registration and vaccination of either single individual or groups of individuals at COVID-19 Vaccination Centre (CVC), registration at common service centers, registration of up to four persons using a single mobile number to facilitate registration of people without mobile phones, use of assisted registrations through National COVID-19 Helpline (1075) or state-integrated helplines.

 Additionally, Persons Without Identity (PWI) can be vaccinated under special sessions.