A senior Indian Medical Association (IMA) doctor said that coronavirus is “constantly mutating” and warned people against lowering their guard and letting the infection run “unchecked”.
Rajeev Jayadevan, the co-chairman of IMA national task force on COVID-19, said that the virus is “constantly trying to outsmart us” and urged people to adhere to all safety precautions to contain the spread of the disease.
“The COVID-19 infection cannot remain unchecked as virus is constantly mutating. We can’t let this infection run unchecked, however, we do not know if the virus will change more or will it change the main infection,” he told ANI.
“We must take extra care and take some basic precautions when we go out daily, which doesn’t mean shutting down the country. As the air contains virus, we must take some basic precautions. We can’t just shut our eyes and say no, it’s gone. That’s the wrong way,” he added.
There has been a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the recent past, raising fears of a fresh wave of the pandemic.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020, the virus has mutated several times over, leading to a rise in cases.
Jayadevan cited the example of the Delta variant of COVID-19 that was behind the deadly second wave of the pandemic.
“There are concerns whether the older Delta version would come back. Nobody knows the future for sure. So, we must be really guarded. When we say everything is fine, it is true that everything is fine from one angle– that is the number of people dying per 1000 infections is lower. In other words, if 1,000 infections happened, the number of people dying is lower than it was two years ago. But it would be a wonder if we could prevent it as well,” he said.
“During the second wave, a large number of people were infected causing huge loss of productivity as people got sick. The other concern that has come, as of now is — reinfections,” he said.
The senior doctor also said that country needs to stay on the top of the genomic sequencing to detect new variants.
“We need to look for new variants when they happen and if something new and unusual happens, we must stay on top of it and upgrade our instructions,” he cautioned.
