As Covid surges in several countries across the world, experts have said that India does not need to worry. The latest in the series is Dr Rakesh Mishra, Director of the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society who spoke about the Covid 19 situation in the country.
“There is nothing for India to be worried about at this stage. China is in a situation where many of its people will get infected & do not have vaccine protection,” Dr Mishra was reported saying by ANI. However, he advised against throwing all the caution to the wind.
“Those who are not vaccinated should get vaccinated immediately. We should avoid crowding and wear a face mask. If we do these things, we will be safe. The government needs to continue to conduct testing,” he added.
Precautionary steps have been implemented at healthcare institutions across the nation as a result of the recent spike in Covid-19 infections in China, which are thought to be caused by the BF.7 sub-variant of Omicron.
It was a wait-and-see situation, according to experts, as there weren’t many cases of the Chinese variant of Covid reported from India just yet.
According to Professor Madhu Gupta of the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health at PGI, India has almost completely immunised its population, with some people receiving booster shots as well.
“Covid restrictions were eased for almost two years and natural infections have almost infected everyone in India. We have good herd immunity in the population. So, we might not face a China-like situation in India. In China because of the zero Covid policy, they did not let the natural infections spread earlier. Therefore, a part of their population was left without immunity either by vaccines or naturally. So, they are now seeing an increased number of cases after the lifting of restrictions,” Professor Gupta was earlier reported saying by The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Minister of Health, announced on Saturday that international travellers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand would be required to undergo an RT-PCR test for the detection of COVID-19.
